Game 03 - Sunday XI v Leyton Orient supporter cc

 I wasn't going to play this game, half expected to not be fit enough, but after the game on Saturday I felt fine and remembered Michael Gray saying something about the team being short or he'd swap for someone, so decided I'd play with no idea of who would be in the team or where it was being played. Late Saturday I secured a place in the team and got a lift to the venue, wasn't till I got in the car I found out that it was at home Mopsies and the opposition was 'Leyton Orient Supporters cc'.

Having arrived early, I then watched as the team wandered in... Dan, Reece, Elliott, Jeandell, Rouse, Kirby, Sri, Arlsan, Keagan, Tom Tonnison all decent players given the opposition is a side with no ground. By the time everyone had arrived it looked to me as though this was probably going to be a one-sided affair and I heard that the opposition had said they felt they had a decent bowling attack, but wasn't as strong with the bat. In which case for the sake of a decent game, in terms of being there for the best part of the day, I was hoping however the toss played out, we'd end up batting first. Thankfully, that was the case.

Weather Sunday - Cooler than yesterday, more cloud with patches of sunshine and bit more of a breeze. The forecast was that this was the end of a very long spell of almost continuous blue skies and warm days we've seen throughout the whole of April and May.

We were put into bat and after the expected initial look at the bowlers the runs started to come. One of our blokes went cheaply... Keagan for 6 with Jeandell next on 35, chipping an easy one to a fielder on the edge of the ring having made a good start.

 Thereafter in no rush (It seemed) a few people made their way to their 50's meaning that had to retire. I wasn't expecting to bat, but the 50's came at a rate that the bowlers then started to make an appearance and then their bowlers started to take wickets and I found myself in for the last 5 balls. The main objective was to see the last 5 balls off so that one of the real batters didn't have to get their pads on again. As I left some of the blokes said 'Do your thing where you run down the wicket at them' A la Tammy Beaumont (England Women opener). Which for me on some occasions is far more positive than defending and getting bowled for 0. I saw off the first four balls and to a big cheer I ran at the bowler in his gather and tried to put the ball into the road behind him only to hear my stumps clatter having completely missed the ball. 

The pick of their bowlers being 'Franklin' with 8-1-58-3 with the maiden being a double wicket one, cleaning up the tail.

So then it was to the bowling. Dan Gray the captain asked me to open with Reece. Reeece taking the first over the new ball. I'd done this with Basav in the 6th XI a couple of games ago and it didn't go that well, but this was with an Orange ball which felt larger in the hand. 

Despite it feeling marginally better it didn't go that well, it looks as though Reece may have had the same problem, but I'm not sure if he was even trying to spin it, or it was that we were bowling against their better bats? 

None of the quicks were used at and all the bowlers were slow. I took a wicket with my first ball... LBW, but generally struggled with the grip and consequently my length. With my deliveries on the full being hit as per the diagram below. 

The others did better and I like to think that was down to the fact that increasingly the ball was easier to grip 'Super Kirby' did really well, although she wasn't happy with her bowling, going for 5-1-8-3 with a wicket maiden. Arslan bowled nice and tight for his 1... 5-3-11-1 and Reece was happy with his 5-1-27-2. I think that left him in the leading position for most wickets for the club so far this season. Just checked he's at No.2...

I'm currently nowhere near the top at the minute languishing down at 26, just above Joe, but we've both had a slow start to the season having missed out on three games at the start of the season. 

All in all a decent game and well captained I thought by Dan and allowing for everyone to have a full day in the field. It could have been so different. 

Boundaries conceded against this team

On reflection and at the time I wasn't happy with the field, but at the minute I don't feel like I'm bowling well enough to use the field, I'd prefer. But these boundaries would have pretty much been covered with my field if given the right fielders. But overall, it could have been a lot better if I'd had bowled better, but I think that'll come. 

Game No.2. B&PCC 5th XI v Navestock 2nd XI

 I was doubled pleased this week to get the email confirming what team I'd be in as I'd gone up a level and was playing in the 5th XI with Tony Millar (c). I also saw that Somnath had been moved up a level too, so it looks like it might be the case that they're swapping people around and giving them games at different levels which will definitely keep people interested. No-one wants to be in team that roll the opposition over as easily as we did week after week in the 6th XI. The other bit of good news was a poll went asking who wanted teas at the game? there was a resounding yes despite it costing an extra fiver, but as far as I'm concerned paying that fiver is well worth it... I don't have to faff about making my lunch!

Again another phenomenal day, almost 100% blue sky and sun and a lovely little ground that I'd never played at before north of Brentwood.

I picked up Somnath and JJ on the way to the ground and set out thinking it would take about 30 mins. It took more like 45 mins. They were seemingly impressed and surprised that I didn't use a satnav to get to the ground. I explained that I'd looked at a map and all it was - was up the road, turn left, turn left, bear right, turn right and you're there... easy!

The team for this game was 

The line-up originally included Tony Keep, but he was ill and couldn't play, so replacing him was promising batter and bowling all-rounder Shriv Kulkarni a 14 year old.

I think we lost the toss and were put in to bat. The oppo were a little worried about the pitch as it had been torn up a bit in the previous weeks by idiots on a quad bike and they were unsure about how it would play. We were more concerned initially as our two openers Asad and Ali Abbas (Father and son) were not going to get to the ground in time which messed up Tony's plans.

So we were led by stalwart Brian Waterman who's 10 years older than me (I'm 64) and been at the club since it started I believe with Somnath at the other end fresh from his 70+ last week in the 6th XI. I did the scoring as I always do.

The start was slow. They opened with an older bloke similar in age to me I reckon who looked like he was bowling leg-breaks, but talking to him later he said it was just dibbly dobbly seam up stuff, but he got off to a very good start along with a very variable faster bowler at the other end. Both gave the openers something to think about and they initially made very slow progress...

Then they brought on R. Karrer and he made the difference, taking 7-1-33-4 

When Tony Millar ran down the wicket looking to score a boundary off Gulmarts seeminly innocuous bowling only to run past the ball and get stumped it looked like we might be in dire straits. Asad, another key batter had gone for 0 , so too Shriv who recently scored 60 in a game only scored 6. We'd been ticking along slowly after the 2 openers who'd pegged us back, but we were hoping to get around 180 and it wasn't looking that promising until Ali Abbas (Asad's son) got to the crease and started hit 4's and 6's. He eventually with the help of others around got us up to 188 which we felt was pretty decent. 

What with them being a 2nd XI no-one had any idea about he well they'd bat. They had a handful of blokes that hadn't bowled in the game who were younger, so if they batted like they bowled, what with the boundaries being small on one side and this being their home ground, this might turn out to be tough...

It wasn't. Archie Monk bowling from the Pavilion end and JJ bowling from the 'Brentwood end' sharing 9 maidens between them, 3 of which were wicket maidens kepts the score ridiculosuly low whilst taking 5 wickets between them. Archie's an under 15's bowler I think too. 

I think that ripped the heart out of their batting line-up as some of these lads looked like they were hoping to put the ball over the boundary a lot of the time only to find their stumps rattled. 1st change brought on another under 15's player Shriv and at the Pavilion regular 5ths player Kirby Jennings. They both bowled tight overs as well with 8 maidens off 14 overs for only 18 runs. Then I got my chance...

With the short boundary on the leg-side I needed to bowl accurately and after an initial 4 off the bat of one of their younger lads I got him in the same over with a Top-Spinner. There had been lots of LBW shouts all the way through the game in their innings and looks of disbelief on the part of our bowlers when turned down. I did what I often do when I'm bowling I tell the batsman at this end and the umpire what I'm about to bowl... I'd bowled Flippers and Leg-Breaks so far, outside of off for the most part and then called... "This ones'a a top-Spinner". I tossed it up nice and full and the batter was looking for the leg-break and played for it and the ball landed very full middle stump about half-way up the stumps, I looked round and asked 'How's that' and he shook his head and said "I can't not give that out" and raised the finger. The other 2 wickets were leg-break stumpings by Somnath, the batters walking down the crease to me. So I ended up with 6-4-5-3, which are probably some of my best figures, but I think that was the same for everyone, we bowled so well and fielded really well too. Having never seen these blokes before I don't know if they just had a bad day or what? 

The next two blokes that came in played a solid game and blocked out for the remaining overs with us winning by 130 + runs. One bloke had a really solid cover-drive, but I did that thing where I start from some distance out and walk in quite a way and cut off every stroke he played bar one that went under me as I tried to cut it off with a sliding stop to my right. 

In the end Basildon beat Navestock by 133 runs

Game No.1. B&PCC 6th XI v Rankins 3rd XI

 Team as below, looks like a decent team at this level with two lads that have never played before that have just started at the club and only bowled in the nets a few times, but are as keen as mustard. A new captain too for the 6th XI... Basav Nilakanthe

Got there just before the game, lovely sunny day with the game being played at Rankins 2nd ground. Right from the outset it was obvious that the Rankins team were probably going to be out gunned, several small boys and some old blokes my age and older.

One of their players and a few others during the match commented... "You don't look like a 6th XI team" having compared their 3rd XI with our 6th XI (See the image further down). I explained that our club had grown exponentially in recent years and that there were loads of spare players even though we'd got 6 teams out and promised them, yeah this really is a 6th XI team, it's just that this is who's playing this week...

Basav the new captain won the toss and decided to bat first and we opened with Somnath and Tristan, both decent batters and needless to say raced away with runs. As it's been so dry the last 6-8 weeks the outfield was fast and the runs came fast.

At one point in the game they deployed a couple of more experienced older bowlers and these did most of the damage, but they couldn't hold the game together on their own. (Petititt and Deepak) 

The damage with the bat was done by Tristan, Somnath and Meanan, with Meanan coming in down the order and putting any hope of the opposition having any chance in the river Roach

Tristan 32, Somnath 76 and Meanan 48.

We ended up all out for 222 of 34 overs and the game was agreed to be shortened to 35 overs from the original 40 over game.

Above the in-game data, but the playcricket data which looks correct is below.

Meanan bowled well. One of the new blokes who was bowling for the first time bowled well too with 3-1-5-1. I didn't get any wickets, but didn't bowl that well and for the most part it was against a left-hander and none of them were looking to make runs so weren't going hard at the ball which is kind of what I need to happen. 

Overall, because it wasn't a competitive game it wasn't that enjoyable and coming away from it, my thought were if it's going to be that standard every week, I'd rather play Sunday cricket where the standard is higher. The other thing that the club could do via this new selection comittee that's being trialled this year is swap people around, so that you don't play in the 6th XI every week against week opposition as that seems like a scenario where we might start to lose players? 

First win for Basav!