Played at Purleigh cricket ground (June 20th)
Blazing hot day at the start of a record breaking June heatwave that was to follow a few days later.
We won by 6 wickets
The opposition won the toss and opted to bat.
What a thing of beauty this scoresheet is, look at this...
Ghandi and Imaran opened and bowled really well taking the wickets of the openers. Which then brought on S.Foster. He was the bloke who did the most damage batting at No. 3 with the most destructive over when batting against Shyam.
Shyam started with a decent initial over with a maiden at the other bloke? Shyams nightmare over went for... Wide, 2 x dots, 4, 4, 6 and 4.
In between the big shots Foster played some deft shots initially down to 3rd man targeting Brian, but for the most part Brian was up to it.
I got brought on for the 17th over which I was fine about, as the main man S.Foster was well into his stride and playing well looking to be aggressive.
With me on, the dynamics changed a bit while they ascertained what I was up to. I started off a bit ropey, a bit too fast and several balls down the legside,but both batters were fairly cautious looking for the loose balls.
With the ropey legside bowling I'd seen that he felt there were options through the legside and I'd got Joe to put two of our more agile and fastest runners on boundaries either side - forward of deep square leg and deep cover point. (Baski and Ghandi). In the second over I bowled two very average balls and went for a couple of singles and realised there was some turn to be had from the wicket if I bowled slower, so I tossed a Leg-Break up a bit slower on middle and leg - pretty full realising it might go for runs, but also migh do the trick. I think he saw it was slower and cleared his front leg to smash it through the off-side; the ball dipped and then turned and fizzed off the wicket hitting the off-stump. The main man gone.
I kid came out and joined the other bloke (Gupta), who initially looked innocious, he'd hit me for a four and a couple of 2's through fine leg. The kid also smacked me for a 4 which I didn't appreciate, but got him with a top spinner that Yogesh caught running in from mid-off. That then brought the captain to the wicket and the prospect of a batter that might come after me.
Again he had a look and played with some caution initially. I mixed up the usual Top-Spinners with Leg-Breaks and of the two deliveries, it was the Top-Spinners that weren't coming out as I wanted - way too full and when I did land them on a decent length they were turning like a Leg-Break and he was sitting deep in the wicket seeing the turn and then playing them through the off-side.
I persevered with the Top-Spinners, hoping that one would come out with the right seam pesentation and the expected dip. I got him in the end with an attempted Top-Spinner that didn't dip that was on the stumps that hit him on the full in front of middle. LBW.
A couple more blokes had a go, but Shyam came back on and took another 3 and they were all out within the 40 overs finishing with 147 after 37.5 overs.
Worrylingly slow start to the game in the first 20 overs which was stressing the captain Joe out to the max. One bowler, an older bloke was very good had the two openers playing with a high level of caution on what to me looked like a bowling wicket (It had been previously used) prior to our stint on it.
We'd played Tillingham a couple days earlier in an evening T20 game, but this wasn't the same team as before and the wicket was pretty much in the middle of the oval with no obvious short boundaries except for one at 3rd man if you were batting at the 'Tree end' and it was down hill. The outfield was OK, but the grass was thick and the ball didn't run away too quickly and many balls were stopped short of the boundary off of decent shots. Lofted shots similarly 'Plugged'.
Additionally they fielded really well, they seemed to have a bloke in the right place throughout our batting and our 2 openers despite facing 153 balls only hit 7 fours, 5 of which were Mitchells.
The oppositions bowling was tight in the first 20 overs despite 6 bowlers being deployed, they kept the runs down to 71 which was causing Joe a great deal of stress. I could sense what was happening. Mitchell and Brian were obviously in control of the situation and I reckon both of them earlier in the innings were seeing a chance of a half century and were happy to nurdle their way to their goals. I've often been in games with Brian who is the oldest player at the club at 76 or 78? Who is amazingly fit given his age and the fact that it was damn hot out there and is modus operandi seems to be to stick in and accumulate runs. But when it gets to the 20th over and he can see we need runs he then gets more expansive with his shots and takes much higher risks. This often plays out where he gets the run rate up to a more productive level, but invariably leads to him being dismissed allowing the next player to come in. Generally in these situations were're at 5 an over and all is not lost with wickets in hand. But 20 overs in and only 71 on the board, Joe was going grey in front of my eyes with a blood pressure reading of 188-90-105!
Joe rotated the umpires in order to get a message out to the middle saying "Get a move on" there's blokes here in the hutch ready to finish this game off! (Basky).
There was another agenda as well. Helping us out was Joe's mate since he was about 5 years old 'Adam' and Joe was looking forwards to a productive little partnership with his 'Bestie' and hopefully finish the game off with a couple of not outs. So as he stood at the edge of the field he could see the prospects of that happening disappearing into the sunset.
Eventually in the 24th over when we were on 86 Brian was dismissed and Jamie Britton went out and immeadiately changed the run rate for the better reaching 31 off of 31 balls. Joe's mate Adam made his way out and was dismissed before Joe had the chance to join him, but the game was pretty much done anyway and we reached the total within the 34th over.
A good result that now puts us 3rd in the League.
With my 3 wickets, I'm now the 2nd highest wicket taker at the club behind the club pro Yannick. The disappointing aspect is that I'm not bowling that well and not taking the wickets at the frequency I want, but with regards the spinners in terms of Strike Rate I'm doing OK. Again only Yannick in front of me with an amazing Strike Rate of 13.07.
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