Match Report vs Cavaliers 09June 2011

Wenvoe was bathed in sunshine, a couple wispy clouds with a light breeze to chill the inactive making it a lovely evening to play cricket. Muff won the toss and elected to bat with the cheese and himself opening and a strong middle order of Kim, Napalm and Steve-O. With the rules for cup games of maximum of 2 overs a bowler and batsmen retiring at 25 the caz had a strong team out.

The opener for the Cavs liked to drop it short and after Muff and Ed had seen him off tucked into the change with their numerous half trackers; muff was struggling to get some of the fuller pitched bowling away but a couple of nicely worked singles kept the strike rotating.

After 5.1 overs, Ed retired on 27 after heaving one to mid wicket. Kim strolled out to crease had a quick chat to everyone and followed with his unusual off side dab and caz brought up the fifty by the end of the over. Muff’s running had been good so far with quick singles and one’s turned into two’s but he was undone by a ricochet off the keepers pads that came out to the vacant midwicket area after a bit of yes, no, yes, no the run was finally attempted only for a direct hit to come in with muff couple feet short off his ground, I have never seen someone run 30 yards and get run out attempting a single, tough luck muff!

As much as the Cazh mourned the loss of the captain this brought Napalm to the crease with everyone wondering how long it would take him to get to 25, this must have been on Napalm’s mind was well, wanting to get his two pounds worth started quite slowly until he clipped one of his pads to midwicket, everyone started to look to boundary only for the short mid-wicket to spring out of his stance and get a hand to the ball; lucky he could not hold on but it certainly saved 4 runs.

Kim and Napalm made short work of the bowling with boundaries mostly on the leg side and another huge 6 from Napalm leading to the inevitable lost ball. Napalm retired after long off missed judged a catch and the ball went through his legs for four. This left the caz on 88 -1 off 9 overs with two men back in the hutch ready to go again.

Steve-O joined Kim at the crease and after his pre delivery routine, that would not look out of place at an audition for a medieval fantasy film, hit a classy on drive for one and got off the dreaded duck. Kim looking to move on to his 25 and retire, started to play expansively, though this was his un doing as to a ball he would normally have waited on and put round the corner, he tried to drive on the up, missed and his leg stump was left on the floor.

Goff wandered out to the wicket looking at quick singles or as quick as his hamstrings would allow. While not too many boundaries during this partnership the runs kept flowing with singles and the growing number of extras from the part time bowlers. Goff after a couple overs starting hunting the elusive boundary and was caught out of his ground, stumped for a pacey 8.

The two Steve’s started to build a partnership with Steve the older carving the ball to the boundary and Steve the younger turning ones into two’s, this amount of running was having an effect on the older Steve and with his pre delivery routine getting longer by ball, it was with certain amount of relief that Steve the younger scampered back for a final two and Steve the older could retire back to the dressing room and the oxygen tent.

This brought James “look at my strike rate” Roach to the middle with only 28 balls in the innings left, Steve the younger hit a crisp cover drive for 4 and then was run out in the charge to get runs with the innings drawing to a close. Paul sauntered out for the remaining 12 balls, facing the opener, the first three balls went for a dot, two, single bring JR back on strike. JR tried to drive off his back foot to a just short of a length ball but only managed to snick it to the keeper. Andy was next out fended off the last ball and we were into the final over with the score at 162 -5.

Dot, dot was the start of the over then Paul was out similar to JR and trusty DT jogged out to the crease, the first ball he faced was a no ball and a run after the keeper spilled the ball, this left Andy to finish the innings with three twos to mid off masterfully picking out their weakest field enabling DT to get back.

With the caz finishing on 170 for 6 with only 24 dot balls

M Foote; Run out 18
E Stewart; Retired 27
K. Swain; Bowled 21
N. Lal; Retired 26
S. O’Reilly; Retired 26
G. Day; Stumped 8
S. Read; Run Out 7
J. Roach; Caught 5
P. Stephens; Caught 3
A. Hood; Not Out 6
D. Thomas; Not Out 1

The caz took to the field knowing that if they kept the early runs down then the pressure would be on the Cavaliers.

J. Roach; 1-0-8-0, opened the bowling, good off side line, coupled of scampered two’s, good solid over.
N. Lal; 1-0-3-0, Excellent over, really attacked the stumps, a drop by the wicket keeper but was a tough chance.
S. Read; 2-0-24-0, took the hammering after a slow start from the batsmen, though most of the runs were from outside edges to the short third man boundary, off side wides seemed a little harsh but there we go.
D. Thomas; 2-0-15-1, two solid overs only conceding one boundary, drew Steadman out of his ground for a stumping though dropped a dolly off his own bowling.
S. O’Reilly; 2-0-20-2, bit of a mixed bag four good balls two of which took wickets, one bowled; the other a top edge caught by JR at mid wicket, though the other 8 were dropped short or down the leg side, no extras though.

At this stage the cavaliers were 63 for 3 off 8 overs with no retires and caz well on top with the fielding crisp and clean withstanding the fat little idiot [ED - this has been identified as the Cheese] bellowing obscenities when the fielding dropped slightly par and even when it didn’t.

P. Stephens; 2-0-6-3, The figures speak for themselves, bowled the number three cue mad celebrations from the bowler peeling off his top, swing it around his head while dashing down the wicket to jump in the arms of the keeper, err well no this is Paul, a rye grin and criticism of the batsman’s shot was it, good wicket though. Dots and singles continued until and last two balls of his spell; Steve-O took a good catch at short cover and the new batsmen smashed it back at Paul who took the catch comfortably, so Paul’s on a hat trick next time he bowls.

A. Hood; 2-0-14-0; Bowled steadily, the cavs only batsmen to retire managed to get away a four at mid on. Nice and steady did not allow the batsmen any easy runs.
E. Stewart; 2-0-14-1, first two balls were down leg one well stopped by the keeper, one stopped by Napalm on the 45°, 6 runs saved in the first two balls! Bowled low full tosses from then on, one jumped up to Steve-O who took a good catch on the jog in the covers. Paul dropped one heading for a six so I say 4 runs saved.
K. Swain; 2-0-16-0, couple of wides but nice and steady at the end of the innings nothing dramatic but we did not need it.
M. Foote; 2-0-16-2; First ball went for four down to square leg unfortunately just where the man had been brought up from, then a wide though only three singles after that. First two balls of the second over were two wickets both bowled. Then in came their only batsman to retire, who had a heave at the hat trick ball but ended in a dot. The next three balls took the gloss of muff’s figures going for 2,4,2.

Caz won by 34 runs, great game everyone involved and everyone making a telling contribution with bat or ball.

As Shakey says we are on a cup run!

Now before this report finishes I must just elaborate on Muff’s hat trick ball, I have just been handed the blue paper from my lawyer with the super injunction not to name the wicket keeper although those among you who did not play might have a clue. There was a bit more to say between the batsmen’s heave and the scorer finally putting down a dot. The fact is the batsman was well out his ground the keeper dropped the ball on the way to breaking bails and deigning our fearless leader a hat trick. Bad luck Skip!!!

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