Different team again, but same sort of format - me and 4 young lads 16-20 year olds
Nightmare getting there again, but I reckon I've got it now and I can do it from memory. A load of us including the Capt got there pretty late. The team had changed Fharen had bailed and been replaced by the legend that is Ariz Malik - leading wicket taker at the club, so that was good news. The bad news was that Lennon felt ill and he didn't want to keep and he wanted a reluctant Keigan to keep. I reckon that was a good move because Keigan took most of the wickets with catches off the bat including mine off a nice Top-spinner after a series of Flippers and Leg-breaks. I'm happy with the fact that increasingly I'm bowling more Leg-breaks mixed in the Flippers.
Almost exclusively so far the opposition have been adults... blokes in their late 20's through to their 50's so it was kind if ominous to see the opposition we were facing tonight (Broomfield) had a similar set up to us - 5 young lads and and one older bloke albeit much younger than me (Early 50')?
The toss had happened and we were batting. What with the late arrivals of our players there was a mad rush to get ready and Rees, opened with Lennon. Rees from the outset looked as though he wasn't really up for it- arriving without his whites and then in the first few balls just trotting between the stumps almost being run-out and it didn't seem to register that he was almost run out. So no-one was really surprised when he was run-out a few balls later, still not making any effort between the stumps, when he plays 40 over cricket he kind of does so in the way that Inzamum-al-huq played towards the end of his career - not really looking to run singles, more looking to hit 4's and 6's. When he came off he admitted not anywhere nearly fit enough for this format of the game.
Keigan went cheaply as well and Lennon stuck around and was dismissed just sort of being retired and it was looking a bit desperate at this stage as we were well short of 50 and only about 4 overs had been bowled and it looked like we were on for a good hiding. Dan went in when Keigan fell and played well alongside Lennon, He must have been retired, as I found myself with Ariz, I actually hit the ball and made some runs, but went cheaply stumped walking down the wicket. Then from what I recall he seemed to go back in with Ariz before being dismissed and we were edging towards a hundred. From what we've seen in this format 120 is a reasonable score and 150 is a good score. Ariz, as the last man standing got us up to 112. It had been our worst batting performance ever and looked like the writing was on the wall for us, but we usually bowl well so 112 might be defendable?
Ariz bowled first and got a wicket with his first ball, with me taking a catch, the looping up to square leg where I was fielding. Ariz got another 2 in quick succession both caught behind by Keigan. He came away with 3-0-5-3! It was the pace and accuracy that did it. Dan got 2 and I took one with the Top-Spinner. They were bowled out for 38. So another win for us.
