I've not been on here much of late having had my little toe broken by a young fast bowler in a game against Chelmsford about 6 weeks ago. It's been sore for the whole time and the thought of getting another ball on it while it's been healing doesn't bare thinking about! Anyway, it's pretty much healed - still swollen it seems and it's healed in the wrong position - about 45 degrees facing the wrong way, so my nail isn't on the top of my toe any more, it now faces diagonally outwards. I reckon it may cause issues later in life.
Loads of other things have been happening - especially at our club. All season right from the outset we've struggled to get all 4 teams out because of the massive exodus over the winter of a lot of 1st and 2nd XI players. As mentioned previously everyone has had to move up a level, so I've been playing 3rd and 2nd XI games along with the rest of the 4th XI regulars. As a result a number of the 4th XI games have been cancelled and in the end the league expelled the 4th XI team. Thankfully the teams that we were due to play have said they'll still honor the games for the rest of the season if we can get a team out and play Friendly games. To be honest though given the fact that when I turned up today for the game Holy Cross it looked liked even with only three teams to fill we were still a man short!
So this was the first game this season at Holy Cross for me having played primarily away games for the 3rd and 2nd team. So I was happy to be at home for once and playing on this ground which I prefer to our main ground Mopsies, these wickets generally are more conducive to spin.
With a man down at this stage the assessment of the wicket was that it was going to crumble and that if we won the toss we should opt to bat, which kind of makes sense in my opinion if you had some semblance of a chance of winning. But by virtue of the lack of players and looking around and only seeing primarily 4th XI players, the chance of us posting 100 + was looking slim. I'd rather opt to bowl and give the bowlers a chance of getting some practice in at least. That way the game would last a few hours and we'd get our £15 worth. The toss was won and the consensus was that we'd bat.
Sechak bowled well for them with 5 wickets for next to nothing.
Tea was had without any actual tea which was a shambles, the cups had been left last summer and were all moldy and at the start of the season and thrown away. No-one in the meantime has seen fit to replace them. If I remember I'll take a few in next time.
So, to the bowling... I'm not 100% sure of how many overs the game was 40 or 45, one of those games with a new set of rules this season relating to maximum spells per bowler - I think it's 8 which is crap. Looking around, it was obvious that we didn't have any seam up bowlers except for Cole Murdoch who's about 13 and primarily there for his batting as far as I was aware. Cole opened from the Estate end with the wind (see below) bowling at their opener Clive Franklin
Unfortunately I hadn't looked at my previous analysis of the Franklin who'd smacked me and the others around the ground when we played them with 8 players some weeks back. But I'd been watching him and with a full team he didn't look quite so special (See updated analysis of Franklin here ). I got him this time with my 2nd ball LBW. The simple analysis is just bowl on or about the off-stumps or outside and fill your field on the off-side with decent fielders. Stray leg-side and he'll be sweeping you (See the link above).
Suchak was up next and we quickly saw that he was pretty much a one trick pony - swinging across the line at anything that was on or around the leg-stump. He was batting alongside Astles who was a different prospect. Suchak didn't last that long and I got him LBW, he may have got me away once through the leg-side for 4 before he was replaced by Holloway a younger bloke about 18-20 years old.
Holloway was one of those Left-Handers who I usually go round the wicket to and it normally doesn't go that well, but with the wind assisting me coming over my shoulder I continued to bowl over the wicket at or about his off-stump on a full-ish line. Initially when he came to the crease he played cautiously and I got the 2nd wicket maiden (5th over). My 6th over I bowled against Mike Astles who looked organised. Again he looked to be intent on putting away anything on the Leg-side and I'd seen him hit a couple of fours through there. He was happy and confident enough to come out of his wicket to me, but for the most part bowling to my field I had him covered. One ball did stray leg-side and that was hit for 6 over deep mid-wicket. I did beat the bat with a nice ball A la Adil Rashid v Virat Kholi - that pitched on leg and only just missed his off-stump by literally a millimeter or two. At the end of the game he was decent enough to compliment me on my bowling saying "I've seen loads of spinners this summer Offies and Leggies, but that was something else.
The 7th over was against the left-hander Holloway, who having watched from the other end seemed intent to show me who was boss in this over. I stayed over the wicket targeting the off-stump bowling a Flipper or two, he looked like he was attempting to hit the ball back at me with straight drives, but with the ball turning off the wicket he kept inside edging it to fielders on the leg-side. Maiden off him. Mike Astle scored the last 4 off of me - again straying slightly leg-side he put it away through the gap between fine-leg and square leg.
To be honest having bowled so little this season I was very pleased with how I'd done. I was slightly disappointed with myself in that I hadn't had a look at the plans for Franklin before coming out, but I'd read him whilst fielding and realised a basic plan of keeping the ball away from the Leg-side would do the trick. The only other thing to mention is that I've been considering changing my approach by going round the wicket and pitching the ball on the leg-side with the idea that (1). I know that they're going to then hit some of the balls with relative ease, so the field would be leg-side dominant and (2) use this approach on the basis that if they miss it, I'm going to hit the stumps so it's probably a more aggressive/attacking approach? I didn't implement it at all today and for me it seems like an approach that might require the potential to bowl more overs and work the batsman out, but with only 8 overs to work with, I may have to put this on hold for a while.
