Match Report vs Whitchurch
Heath 24 April 2022 @ Whitchurch Hospital (Skipper
Richie, report Luvvers)
Whitchurch CC vs Cardiff Casuals CC – 24th April 2022
Intro
The first game of the season under the new captaincy of Rich,
it goes without saying that we all wish him the best of luck
for the upcoming season.
The weather was cloudy with sunny spells, a little chill
in the air when the sun was hidden but nevertheless a good
day for cricket. The pitch looked immaculate considering it
was so early in the season so credit to the groundsman from
a batting point of view, from a bowling point of view it was
about to be a tough gig. We had a 1300hrs start and all players
were actually ready to go (even Stevo!). The skippers went
out to toss the coin and Rich had his first loss of the season,
Whitchurch winning and choosing to bat first.
First Innings
Due to an injury to Dave (great effort for turning up and
playing by the way) the bowling options were rather limited,
Luvvers opened up with Steve and the match was underway. Both
unlucky finding inside and outside edges against two very
good opening batsmen but a boundary ball per over kept their
rate at roughly 5 an over, with the batsmen punishing anything
short and wide to the very small boundary on the pavilion
side of the ground. 12 overs gone and Whitchurch were 50-0
and looking comfortable. The first bowling change saw Will
replacing Luvvers and Shakes replacing Steve, Shakes bowled
well only giving away 4 boundaries in his 8 overs and two
of them should have been prevented. Will however in his new
role of first change bowler was punished for anything too
full or short and the opening batsmen attacked the small boundary
with some big hits. Both batsmen retired after reaching their
50’s and this prompted their next two batters to go
on the attack especially against Will.
The second change from the top end saw Rhys replacing Will,
after a nervy first over going for a 6 and 4 he then settled
into a nice tidy line and length, the only boundaries coming
from their number 3 who was swiping across the line to the
short boundary and getting away with it every time, Rhys got
his revenge and picked up the first wicket of the season,
the batsman pulling a hard effort to Jack who made a difficult
catch look very easy. Shortly after, Rhys had our first drop
of the season, although this was a tough caught and bowled
chance that the batter drilled back at him to be fair. At
the other end, Shakes’ good spell ended and Stevo replaced
him.
This was probably the tidiest spell I’ve seen from
Stevo and he was rewarded with 4 wickets, 2 bowled, one brilliantly
stumped by Jimmy and the other caught well at cover by Will.
2 of these wickets came in the last over of the innings within
the first 4 balls, Stevo had 2 balls to get his first ever
5-for**! Their number 9 had a swipe and hit the 5th ball for
4 so there was one opportunity left, Stevo bowled and the
batsman attacked, he mistimed a slog straight down the throat
of our new skipper and he spilled it! 2nd drop of the season
for the Casuals and prevented a first ever 5-for**. That wrapped
up the innings and although we had tough stages the whole
team stuck at it and kept the score to a level that a solid
batting line up could potentially chase on a good track. Whitchurch
getting themselves to 221-5.
Luvvers 8-1-36-0
Steve 6-0-26-0
Will 6-0-52-0
Shakes 8-0-35-0
Rhys 6-1-33-1
Stevo 6-1-32-4
Catches x 2 – Will, Jack
Stumping x 1 - Jimmy
Tea
As there were no teas, it was up to individuals to provide
for themselves. A mixture of quiches, pasta pots, doughnuts
and wraps were spotted, nothing too exciting or extravagant
to report I’m afraid.
Second Innings
Looking at the batting line up, there was a strange sense
of positivity coming from the Casuals, this was further enhanced
after the first few overs. Jack and Rhys opening up against
their two quickies and playing superbly, both looked solid
in defence whilst cutting, pulling and driving anything loose.
The 50 partnership just came up in the 11th over before Rhys
got unlucky and was bowled, I think it was an inside edge
(but could be wrong), a solid effort and certainly helped
us on our way and saw off the opening bowlers. This brought
Will to the crease, Jack continued to play beautifully not
giving any half chances to the opposition and rotating the
strike well, Will was timing it well but regularly finding
the extra cover fielder with his drives.A few boundaries later
including one stunning straight six from Will brought up the
second 50 partnership of the innings, the Casuals were going
well and keeping up with the rate when Will thought it was
time to bring out the reverse sweep against their slow left
armer, the ball bounced a touch more and Will gloved it to
their fielder who took a tidy diving catch, the Casuals were
106-2 from 24 overs at this point and well set with wickets
in hand for a good chase.
The loss of Will brought Steve to the crease. The bowling
changes tightened things up as the run rate slowed down, although
batting beautifully Jack was struggling to find boundaries
(he was knackered to be fair) and Steve took a few balls to
get going, it was at this point where the regular shouts from
the boundary from Stevo began, ‘it’s not a test
match’, ‘get on with it’ and ‘you
have a big bat use it’ were a few to note. The Casuals
were on 168 from 34 overs when Steve got bowled after a well
made 33. The Whitchurch skipper decided to bring his openers
back on to close the game out as Dave arrived at the crease,
he valiantly tried to be aggressive but some accurate bowling
was too good to get away, meanwhile the fatiguing Jack was
still battling away at the other end running hard at every
opportunity.
Noticing that the game was slipping away and boundaries were
hard to come by, Jack decided to run everything, including
a two that Usain Bolt wouldn’t have made let alone Dave,
it was taken in good spirit by Dave though as we were pushing
hard to get to their target. Dave was run out in the 38th
over with the score on 177 bringing Jimmy to the crease. This
brought with it some aggressive swings but by this point the
game had gone, it was a good batting display and a great chase
held together by a fantastic knock from Jack. The tight bowling
in the middle overs and the openers coming back on stalled
our momentum but fair play for the effort. The Casuals finishing
on 196-4, 26 runs short of victory.
Jack – Not Out 89
Rhys – Bowled 16
Will – Caught 31
Steve – Bowled 33
Dave – Run Out 6
Jimmy – Not Out 6
DNB – Luvvers, Stevo, Rich , Shakes
** a few days later it was remembered that Steveo had actually
previouslly btained a 5for back in 2009 - that day had a similar
feel as recounted n the below snippet from that match
report
"With the best chance of his life to claim a 5for Steveo
(and Foxy at the other end) was kept on for the remaining
overs. Foxy unlucky with a couple of difficult catches off
his bowling (mainly fielders running desperately in the deep),
but Steveo got one wicket closer in the 37th picking up another
bowled. The penultimate over Steveo needing one more….second
ball, the batsman looped one up to mid-on, Richie standing
underneath it, hands out (or should it be thumbs out), fumble,
spilt dropped….was that the chance…? No, two balls
later the milestone (that’ll never be seen again) was
reached Steveo bowling the number 9.!!!! After the celebrations
he finished off the innings last ball of his spell getting
the last wicket bowled once again!! Shocking scenes."
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