Time to Step Up
So, a home game against Lymington, who had won their first two games, with the opening bat Mr Tollerfield scoring a century in each one, so could be tricky. Their last game they were skittled out for 29, so I was carrying some hope that they had some vulnerabilities. Chatting to their captain, he described the loss as due to facing a surprisingly fast bowler for this level of cricket and the team could not deal with the pace. He also said that they were playing with 3 U14s, which they would not be in the game against us. So, we may be facing a stronger team than they had previously put out.
We lost the toss and Lymington decided to bat. Was in two minds as to what I would have done so I was happy enough with this. I was aware that the Winton pitch had been a bit naughty recently but was confident that it would be playing better so batting first might have been nice. But still, we get to use the new ball and if we bowl well could limit them to a gettable score.
On we crack, our opening bowlers take a wicket and keep scoring opportunities down in the first ten overs. After this though, ‘Mr Century’ is joined by a couple of ‘big biffer’ batsmen and the run rate starts to climb alarmingly, so by drinks Lymington have score well over 100 runs and are accelerating. This is worrying; a big score is in the offing. On the plus side we had also managed to pick up a couple of wickets so not a complete disaster.
This is a situation that makes it genuinely interesting to be a captain, as if I just let things drift it could go very bad, so what to do? The plan I decide to go with is to bring back one of the opening bowlers straight after the break to see if he can tighten things up at one end whilst turning to the young lad A Worsdale at the other to see if he can get a wicket or two with his ‘toss it up’ slow deliveries.
Surprisingly enough, this plan worked out bang on. Alex kept it tight one end while the lad Adam spun his web at the other taking three wickets. During this period Lymington also suffered a retired hurt, someone going down while running for a second run. My first instinct was ‘he’s fallen over get the ball in’. It soon became apparent that this was a proper injury so the game stopped and the gentleman had to hobble off – all the best to him and hope it is not as bad as feared.
After this clutch of wickets the ball went to the strike bowlers and the innings was soon wrapped up. After twenty overs I was fearing a score well in excess of 200, so to finish of the innings for 166 was a performance that I was proud of. One fear was the pitch was getting worse as the innings went on but with a target of only 4 an over I felt it was more than doable. A nod to Mr Tollerfield – who just missed out on his third century of the season by being left stranded on 94.
And then we had a bat, er, yeah, that was not so great. Now, people may point to the fact that I got out for a duck and this is true. I was out playing a defensive shot to a good ball – which was better than I could deal with. Too many of the team got out swinging. Or even more frustratingly, playing a half hearted push shot and chipping the ball into the air for a catch. Not flat batting it into the ground like they should have done. The forward defensive shot seems to be a dying art.
It gives me a semi just looking at it
So what should have been a doable run chase into a chastising 61 all out, a bit frustrating really. The pitch was getting to be difficult to play on and a couple of people did show tenacity and got out to difficult balls (one being an ankle high skimmer going under the bat of a defensive shot, again). But overall, a performance that could have and should have been far better. I can only refer my team to the post game team talk in the blog entry for the last game.
This is how bad it’s got
On Play Cricket for each team there is a ‘Hall of Fame’ for each team. And for my team this shows me as having the best performance in a game for the team with both bat and ball. I do not say this to blow my own trumpet. Well, ok, maybe there is a little self bugle tooting going on. But I mainly say this because there is no way I can be described as the best batter or bowler in this, or indeed any other, team. And the fact that I am performing better than everyone else in the team I fear says far more about everyone else than it does me. First two games of the season everyone was on it, the level now seems to have dropped. Some come on gentlemen, time to extract digits.
Winton Round Up
The 1s are up and running with a win – get in! Both the 2s and 4s maintain their 100% start to the season. Four out of four for the 4s and the 2s. The threes had a match that I can sympathise with……
HCL Div6(a)
Pylewell Park and Mudeford 2s both maintain a 100% start to the season to go first and second. They play each other next week – an early season 6 pointer? Mudeford 3s are snapping at their heels in third. At the bottom there are three teams yet to win a game – I will not be so gauche as to name them…….
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