002 - 2nd game - Rayleigh

 So this game was against Rayleigh 6th XI. As far as I'm aware Rayleigh get 7 teams out at the weekend and generally field decent teams. 

It seems that pitch 3 has been designated our 'Home ground' and it's a ground that I like playing at and I generally bowl from the River end which is at the top as you look at this map.

The weather predicted yesterday was...

Looks like a decent day, there's been a little rain of late, but overall it's been very dry, so expected a dry pitch and one that doesn't turn much. 

As it turns out, it was breezy and sunny, nice and warm and very dry. 

This is the team...

Form for Rayleigh, far more wins than us, so it's going to be a tough match. Looking at who we've got it's going to be a tricky game. With regards bowling going down the list. Waleed could bowl off-breaks, Nauman and Bhaskar are the openers I'd imagine and it looks like Joe's going to have to bowl? It looks like we're batting heavy in this game. We could all bowl 8 overs and that'd do it?

Lee Dutton showed up with his torn calf muscle and did some umpiring. He said he reckoned he'd be another 3-4 weeks before he's playing and that it's been feeling better each day. He just needs to rest it and not be tempted down the nets, but he even said 'If any of your blokes don't show up, I'll field at slip and have a swing'...

We lost the toss and Rayleigh put us in and we got off to a calamitous start at the hands of two young openers, one of whom would normally be bowling and batting in the 3rd XI. They were fast and accurate with varying lenghts as the score card of 7 wickets for 37 runs indicated, with one of them getting a 5 fer in his first 5 overs. It looked like we would be home before the first innings was over at Mopsies, but with the new Bloke Ryan Smith and Prasad Akki at the crease and a change of bowling, the wickets stopped and some runs started to accumulate.

We eventually walked off having accumulated 136. Not without a mishap or two, the worst being the loss of Prasad and the end of the best partnership. Prasad hit the ball through mid-wicket and it was mis-fielded and he called for a single and ran and Ryan shouted no and Prasad kept going till he was about 2/3rds of the way down and had no way of getting back when the kid gathered the ball. That then brought me to the wicket at No.11 and that didn't go well, "Out" off the 4th ball. Ryan at the other end said "To be fair, that was the best ball he's bowled". I was disappointed, I wanted to make some sort of a contribution even if it was enabling Ryan to get us up to 150.

So with 136 on the board to defend we had some work to do, I wasn't hopeful till I saw the first couple of overs and realised the two blokes (Openers) looked like they batted at my standard. As I mentioned we didn't have any recognised and established bowlers of note other than me and I didn't want to be bowling till the shine was taken off the ball a bit. 

It turned out that 'New Ryan' who wasn't exactly new, just hadn't played for about 5 or 6 years was also a half decent bowler, so he opened with "Bhasky" and they created a few opportunities and eventually Ryan got the first wicket the Captain Dave Turner for 10. Then there was a longish phase where the runs dried up with Gopalan and Rothon batting, but no wickets. Then Joe brought in Waleed from my preferred end (The river end) and he had a go with his off-spinners. That came to nothing and Joe brought himself on and he quickly took these two and I had an over from river end replacing Waleed. Waleed warned that the wicket didn't offer any turn and that I'd probably be better off bowling from the Estate end. *Because this was scored digitally I have no idea how that over went, but I vaguely recall it being uneventful and virtually no runs. 

There were some end swapping shennanigans as per Waleeds and Lee Duttons suggestion (Lee had looked at the wicket with me and had suggested that I bowl from the 'Estate End' rather than my preferred 'River End'). This brought a couple of blokes that looked like they might be able to hold a bat and the game looked poised at this point to be slowly drifting away from us with Waleed bowling and not making any inroads. 

Once I changed ends Lee and Waleed were right, it did turn and prospect of wickets increased and within an over or two (No data digital scoring) I had Brad Walker trapped LBW in front of middle and leg with a little Leg-Break having made only 1 run and then one of the youngsters Arvin Ghataura caught keeper (Prasad Akki) off a very good Leg Break pitched on middle that clipped the edged of the bat. I then started to get cramp in one of my calf muscles and then both of them. It wasn't so bad bowling it was in the field that they cramped up and then Joe took me off just as the two opening bowlers started to 'Give it the biggun'. The kid who'd taken the 5 wickets hitting me for 6 and 4 I think in my last over, but I was never to be brought back on to make amends and inevitably the game slipped away from us and we lost. 

I'd have written more, but without proper bowling data it's not that easy to make sense of what happened that well. Anyway, we lost and I didn't get to bowl my full allocation. Joe said it was down to the double cramp situation. Despite the cramp as you can see, I still came away with the best economy and a couple of wickets, so I was relatively happy. 

With weeks of sunshine and northerly winds, the wicket was as dry as the Gabba, making it difficult to get the stumps in the ground. Joe (El capitano) and Prasad working hard trying to get the stumps into the wicket at the River End. 

The wicket looking towards the Estate end

The table of spinners...

So, where does that leave me in the grand scheme of things among the spinners? 

Week two and I've broken in to the top 10 just about, despite my knackered hip and double calf muscle cramp and being taken off 2 overs too early! Kirby had a good game taking 3 wickets in her first over with Joe my son taking a catch for her on the boundary. He took 2 wickets and then Kirby and Dan "I don't actually spin it" Bedford pretty much cleaned up the rest on their own by all accounts. My strike rate has now improved, now that I've taken some wickets, it may have been a blessing in disguise that Joe took me off when he did, but I may have bagged another couple as I was bowling OK. 

Tony Keep is nowhere in the table of spinners yet and he came back to the club wicketless today, saying he wasn't feeling it. He'll be back I'm sure, snapping at the heels of Yannick in no time. Kirby is doing exceptionally well in terms of her strike rate 11.57, so I've got work to do. 

There was supposed to have been a game the next day (Sunday 10th) but the opposition could only muster 2 players by Thursday, so they bailed. I can't see how that works when we've currently got 5 players a week currently wanting to join -how come they're so bereft of players?