Match report vs St Fagan's
29 June 08@ St Fagan's (Skipper Dan Lewis, report A
Akbari)
The day did not start well, with Smitt due to take his new
position as Vice Captain officially on, and be captain on
the day against St Fagan’s, a freak accident 3 hours
before the game was due to start on the tennis court meant
the curse of the vice captaincy had hit the casuals again,
ruling the new vice captain out for a approximately a month.
Dan stepped in as captain and Paul filled the remaining spot
on the team sheet.
Captain Dan took the toss and the casuals were put into the
field. Andy and Dan opened and with Smitty being MIA, Ashley
put on the gloves for the first time for the casuals this
season. Both Andy and Dan opened excellently both finding
a cracking line and length straight away, and with the wind
blowing up and the rain trickling in– no easy task.
They both contained the St Fagan’s opening batsman excellently
and an inside edge in the third over was the first opening
but skipped through a bit to fast on the rusty Akbari who
put it down. The over’s continued to be of the utmost
quality until the 5th over, when the batsman thought it would
be a good idea to wander down the wicket to Andy, who took
great pleasure in pitching a shorter one in which was top
edged miles into the air and was luckily not dropped this
time by Ashley a few yards behind. He was gone for 10. Another
wicket fell soon after, Hood bowling the next batsman for
3 and then the next for 2. The casuals were happy at this
point, with St Fagan’s posting 20 for 3 off 7 over’s.
The casuals continued to bowl well, with Fitzy coming on
for his second and last game of the season looking to grab
a few wickets and Scott coming on from the other end. In the
next few over’s both the casuals and St Fagan’s
were privileged to a true master class in fielding and diving
stops by Shakey, who showed us all how to do it –if
we were about a foot taller than he was
Scott bowled very well keeping the runs to a minimum, with
Fitzy getting a little less lucky with the opening batsman
finding his range and eye and using it to smack a few boundaries.
Next on were the Fox and Paul. Paul got smacked a bit off
the first over with 3 sixes and 2 fours but recovered excellently
in his remaining over’s to contain the dangerous batsman
and Foxy baffling the batsman with his range of deliveries
to keep the batsman on their toes and keeping them to the
minimum number of runs.
The 3rd batsman continued to knock the casual bowlers around
a bit getting himself to a century and in the process hitting
a six towards the clubhouse, which bounced under the roof
– through the door and with a loud knock bang and a
smash managed to miss the 40 people in the doorway. Of course
the casual fielders who were obviously concerned for peoples
safety where all heard to shout from the field “HOW
IS THE TEA – IS THE TEA OK” – luckily it
was just the clock on the wall which had been knocked off
– therefore not a walk able offence which ruining the
tea would have been and he continued
Dan came back on to finish his spell and with the 3rd batsman
racking his century, a great delivery from Dan smashed the
middle stump out of the ground to remove him from a good knock
of 125. Steve and Tesh came in to finish the innings both
getting knocked around a bit by an attacking pair.
Bowler Over’s Maidens Runs Wickets
A Hood 8 2 25 3
D Lewis 8 1 32 1
S Fitzgerald 6 0 53 0
S Hand 4 0 10 0
J Prior 5 1 23 0
P Stephens 5 0 41 0
S O’Reilly 2 0 21 0
T Hirani 2 0 24 0
Extras:
1 bye, 3 leg byes 5 wides
Batsman How Out Bowler Total
1: Caught Akbari Hood 10
2: Bowled Hood 3
3: Bowled Lewis 125
4: Bowled Hood 2
5: Not Out - 67
6: Not Out - 18
So with a good tea laid on, and St Fagan’s posting a
total of 236, a reserved casual team took the field in Shakey
and Tesh, with both starting extremely well to a good bowling
attack. Shakey playing the true conservative opening batsman
knocking away the loose balls and Tesh playing the more aggressive
batsman swinging the bat and finding the gaps and the boundary.
They both continued to bat well into the 14th over, when
a ball unfortunately pitched up out of no where to strike
Shakey in the side of the head. After a bit of break to assess
the councillor was ok – he retired hurt on 10. (Ed-
The freak bouncer that felled Shakey...I only wish we had
it on camera...the ball pitched and rose sharply (though not
particularly quickly) Shakey reacted by trying to hook it,
and all in slow motion the ball struck the side of his head,
he wobbled, thought about it, then decided it was best to
go down like the titanic. There was no sympathy from the side
lines, in fact Steveo jumped up reached for a cherry bakewell
and ran onto the pitch to give Shakey some 'cake aid'....the
sympathy came later once we saw Shakey looking a little shakey....
At this point we were 44 off 13 and looking good...)
Next in was Scott who played at a few before being taken
by a cracker of a delivery which just nicked the outside stump
for 0. Steve was in next knocking a quick single and a 4 before
being caught by an absolute jaffa of a diving catch by the
captain who was as shocked as Stevo that he managed to a)
get to it and b) hold onto it. Roach was in next playing defensively
and trying to provide Tesh with the strike as he built his
innings, before being caught for 3. Paul was in next, playing
at a few before going for 3 also. Fitzy went in next backing
up the on strike Tesh, but whilst trying to get down the wicket
he missed the ball and was stumped by the keeper for a good
knock of 39 (ed- Tesh also invented a new shot - the 'tripod
cut' - when facing the leg spinner, Tesh managed to play the
ball through his legs croquet style). An excellent opening
bat by Tesh. Next in was Ashley who almost ran Fitzy out (according
to him) off the first ball and Fitzy in turn tried to repay
the favour, luckily neither were out, and they both continued
to build a good little partnership before Fitzy was trapped
on the back foot given LBW for 2. Andy Hood came in next and
Ashley knocked a few good shots away to the boundary before
being bowled through the gate for 20, which was noted by Dan
after the game to take me over my 100 milestone. Dan came
in last and on his second delivery was bowled for 0, with
Andy not out for 1, leading the casuals to a score of 102
all out off 34 over’s.
The major turning point of the game was when Shakey had to
retire hurt – with both him and Tesh batting really
well up to this point, I think it would have been a different
game, luckily the councillor was fine at the end of the game.
Batsman How Out Runs
M Stephens Retired Hurt 10
T Hirani Stumped 39
S Hand Bowled 0
S O’Reilly Caught 5
J Roach Caught 3
P Stephens Caught 3
S Fitzgerald LBW 2
A Akbari Bowled 20
J Prior Bowled 1
A Hood Not Out 1
D Lewis Bowled 0
An eventful game with incidents, the weather changing from
rain to gusting winds to sun by the end of the day and a good
tea, overall an excellent game with good atmosphere, banter
on and off the field, and friendly spirit. Not a particularly
good overall performace but some individual brilliance and
positive team attitude throughout. Unlucky not to get closer
to their total, if only their batsmen had given some chances....
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