Match Report vs Sri Lankans
20 July 2014 @ Wenvoe (Skipper and report Shakey)
The sri lankans turned up with a familiar looking team at
Wenvoe for one of our rare home sunday games. We always seem
to have interesting games against them so would this be any
different? Ed got the early breakthrough we needed which pegged
back the ambition of the sri lankans. With memories of Fakhar's
142 in a league game seared in our minds it was pleasing to
see us keep him quiet for so long but Ed and Stu did a great
job and then Pete nipped in with another wicket. After 10
overs they had moved slowly to 34-2 with Fakhar still at the
crease. Our strangehold on the game got even tighter with
some excellent straight and probing bowling from Paul and
winks. Paul unfortunately went wicketless but Andy picked
up a wicket courtesy of a catch from Tesh and then secured
that rarest of decisions for him - a deserved lbw!!
The growing pressure produced another wicket via a run out
before Ed came back into the attack and dismissed Fakhar (38)
first ball back with a sharp caught and bowled. Another wicket
from Ed (finishing with 3-12) and the sri lankans were firmly
on the ropes at 91-7 after 27 overs.
We couldn't quite nail home the advantage and the sri lankans
fought back well thanks to Niluka and Venkat who built their
partnership quietly but steadily. They never quite managed
to race away with the scoring but they took the sri lankans
towards a more respectable total before Foxy picked up Niluka
(40) caught by Richie to end on 157-8, probably 20 short.
A special shout to Darren who manned up when shakes cast his
eye over the team in search of an emergency keeper - he confirmed
the keeping mullarky was hard work in the sun.
After a goodly Tea from the Fox the Casuals reply went swimmingly.
After 10 overs we had quite comfortably moved on to 43-0 with
Tesh and Kim batting assuredly and it was a surprise when
Tesh was out for 24 with the score on 69 in the 18th over.
The scoring rate never quite accelerated for any period of
time. There were some quiet scoring spells but then a four
or a couple of well judged runs did the trick to put us within
touching distance of the rate and at 30 overs we found ourselves
on 108-2 (Andy out for 10) needing 50 runs off 11 overs but
with 8 wickets in hand.
If you are reading this match report you must have read a
few over the years so you are very likely to know what happened
next. Yep and it was a good un too. The familiar Casuals batting
collapse began with Richie falling for 7 followed quickly
by Darren, cheese and Paul to leave us on our arse at 116-6
off 33 overs. Another 42 runs needed off 7 overs and Kim had
to bat with the tail. Pete supplied the much needed resistance,
his crucial innings of 2 allowing an additional 22 runs to
accumulate through extras and the increasingly authoritative
Kim. But Pete was run out for 2, and Foxy was bowled for a
duck as we limped to 144-8 off 38 overs. Two overs left and
14 runs needed but Kim was crucially off strike leaving Stu
to face Niluka. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Stu smashed
a four first ball to quieten the nerves that were now being
shredded on the sidelines. But two balls later and he was
bowled and so last man shakes walked out with 10 runs needed
off 9 balls.
At this point its worth noting that Kim was 73 not out courtesy
of 10 boundaries. He had scored nearly half of our 148 runs.
As senior batsman Kim's order to shakes was 'don't get out'.
Shakes followed orders and any thought of a run off the final
ball of the 39th over was quite sensibly cast aside. So we
needed 10 off the final over of a real nail biter with Kim
now back on strike. Fakhar was given the pressure of the final
over from the pavillion end and first ball he bowled a low
full toss which to the left-handed Kim was a gift and he smashed
it as hard as he could over long leg for a glorious six. Two
balls later and Kim hit the winning boundary to leave the
Casuals winners of a thriller with one wicket and three balls
to spare.
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