Match Report vs Highway Hurricanes 13 August 2009

After the Cardiff rainy season had past, for a few days at least, it looked like there may actually be a danger of some cricket. The sun was out, there was barely a cloud in the sky and it looked as if this was about the best evening there could be for a game of cricket. So you can imagine our disappointment when Muff greeted us with; “very sorry gents, some tyke has gone and scorched the pitch somewhat and it looks as if the game is off” (or words to that effect, perhaps with a few ‘c*nts’ and ‘f*cks’ thrown in).

However, determination won through; some boundary markers were found, a mat (which served no purpose whatsoever) covered the bonfire and it was decided to bowl from one end. Now, you will have to excuse the vagaries (and self-centredness, as I can just about remember my bits) of the following report – I don’t have the scorebook and it was a few days, and a pretty heavy weekend, ago.

Highways went into bat and Winkie opened the bowling. Quick, accurate bowling, as we have come to expect from Mr Hood, ensued and Highways were under pressure. Warwick bowled the next over and between some generously not given ‘leggy wides’, bowled full and straight and picked up two wickets (bowled). The wickets continued to tumble in over 3, when Winkie’s aggressive bowling clattered into the stumps – Highways now precariously placed on about 15-3 (ish). Warwick’s next over went for just one but the new batsmen stood firm.

A change of bowling brought on, in no particular order: Prior, Stephens, Kannan, Hirani, Hand and Foote for two overs each. Sadly the run rate soon rocketed as the mixed bag of bowling, and some decent balls, were mercilessly slogged to the boundary (mostly straight, square leg or somewhere in between), helped on by the fast outfield. Actually ‘slogged’ is a bit unfair, as there were plenty of decent shots on offer and the batsmen looked in control. As far as I recall, Scott’s bowling looked the most dangerous and he got his deserves with a wicket, bowled (I think there may have also been a catch, so apologies if I’ve missed you out – please add anything below).

Warwick bowled the penultimate over and tried his best to ruin his figures with the first couple of balls – too short and hit for four – one found the gap but missed the stumps, only for a quick thinking Smitty (WK) to parry back onto the sticks and successfully stumping unknown batsman. Hood finished off the innings with another tight over which the batsman slashed at like a man possessed but I don’t think ever connected with.

So Highways finished their 18 overs with 128 runs – a tall order.

Sadly, it was a fairly typical Casuals batting performance; some great shots but with wickets given away cheaply and lacklustre running, the total was slipping away fast. Standout bat was Britton, with an excellent thirty-something (sincere apologies if it was more). Smitts scored well and looked like going on to a reasonable score, but, like so many others, lost out to some generally sound bowling (apart from the occasional six-foot beamer). I’m afraid there was little else worth mentioning about the Casuals’ innings, so I’ll leave it there; needless to say we fell a fair few short.

Still, it would have been absolutely criminal not to play cricket on such a glorious evening.

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