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Match Report vs Sri Lankans 14 June 2009 @ Morgan Jones, Caerphily (Skipper and Report Jam)

A lovely sunny day greeted us and a million chavs at Morgan Jones nowhere to Park for our annual away trip to face the Sri Lankans.

The Casz batting has stuttered a bit of late so upon winning the toss, we decided to have a bowl with a view to restricting the Sri Lankans to gettable total. We were without Andy & Dan but I felt confident that we still had enough bowling options to cause the oppo problems and so it proved early on.

Paul opened up with a maiden and bowled a beautiful opening spell (6-3-9-1), restricting the runs and making the first breakthrough bamboozling their opener who could only spoon one up for an easy catch. Mohamed backed him up well in a four over spell which conceded only 13 runs (even though he said he was struggling for rhythm!). After 10 overs they were 27-1, exactly what we’d hoped for.

Mahesh bowled a solitary over before changing ends to replace Paul, and Dave T took over from the other end and had immediate success, bowling their number 3 in a wicket maiden. Another wicket fell to a run out as Shaky – yes Shaky!! - swooped to gather one handed and throw down the stumps. 28-3 after 12 overs.
This brought two of their shot players together in Niluka & Fary who accelerated the scoring rate by going after the bowling a bit, but in his 3rd over Dave had Fary bowled by one that turned sharply. 2 overs later, Niluka hit a six off Dave but DT followed up next ball with a slower one (? – well that’s what Dave called it!) which clean bowled him. 3 wickets for DT and at drinks, the Sri Lankans were 91-5: I would definitely have taken that at the start of the day.

Foxy & Shakes took over the bowling, the just-turned 70 year old Foxy bringing all that wealth of experience to the fore whilst Shaky bowled at ‘medium’ pace from the other end. Both bowled well, taking a wicket apiece and at 30 overs the score had just about crept up to 122-7, things still going to plan. A run a ball over the last 10 overs would get them to 182, but with 7 wickets down we were looking to finish them off before that.

Tesh & Pikey closed out the innings for us and again both bowled well. Pikey shrugged off his back problems to take two wickets, one bowled and one caught behind by Steveo. Tesh should also have had a wicket but DT put down the simplest of chances (the scorer had already written a ‘w’ in the scorebook!). In fact, although our ground fielding was good all day, our catching was poor - we put down 6 chances in all, some easy, some more difficult, and that cost us the chance to finish off the innings early. We spurned several chances to get their no 7 out, but he finished on 43 not out and their innings closed on 182-9 after the full 40 overs, an attainable total but about 20 more than they should have got.

Pablo 6-3-9-1
Mohamed 4-0-13-0
Mahesh 5-0-37-0
Dave T 5-1-28-3
Shakey 6-1-22-1
Foxy 5-0-13-1
Tesh 5-0-31-0
Pikey 4-0-21-2

Notes:

• DT followed Shakey’s example by fielding a ball one handed and throwing down the stumps direct. (I know what you’re thinking but it did happen – honest, I was there!)
• Mahesh got a fingertip to a sharply hit ball off his own bowling and it almost took the end of his finger off. Well it looked more bloody than it actually was.
• The skipper put down a catch coming forward off the boundary with the ball then hitting him square in the shin, leaving a lump the size of a small apple.
• One of the many chav dads decided to play football with his two young kids inside the boundary even though there was about 200 yards of empty field beyond it: when this was politely pointed out to him, he picked up one of the boundary markers and threw it over the fence! Only when the ball pinged off the bat in their direction did he realise that this was really quite a hard missile that was travelling towards his kids at a rate of knots, and that it would be wiser to go and play elsewhere. What a cock!!

Anyway, back to the cricket. JF & JR opened the Casuals’ reply and the innings started perfectly with the skipper hitting the first ball, a Fari full toss, to the boundary for 4. The success was short lived, however, as he was adjudged lbw in the third over, followed shortly by Mahesh, also given out lbw for 6.

Tesh joined JR and the pair plodded along until the 10th over when Mr T was bowled for 8 leaving us 30-3 after 10 overs. Shaky entered the fray and played very well, scoring all round the wicket whilst Roachy held up one end blocking everything that came his way. The pair had put on 43 when Mark was caught at short midwicket for 26 by Douglas, one of their oldest fielders, reaching low to take an amazing one-handed catch with the ball almost already past him.

Steve came in and took a single to get off the mark. The Sri Lankans then brought Niluka on to bowl and Steve hit four, six, dot and four off his first four balls, overtaking JR’s score in the process. The six was a massive hit over long and almost killed a young family minding their own business on the bank by the changing rooms. He was finally bowled after scoring 30 out of a 37 run partnership.

Pikey came in and continued the good work, keeping us up with the required rate while Roachy continued to drop anchor at the other end. JR finally succumbed lbw for a slow and solid 26, a very important knock in the context of the game as he had seen off a large chunk of Fari’s overs.
Foxy came and went run out for 0 and Mohamed was bowled for a quick-fire 6 with the score on 147-8 and the Casz needing 36 off 4 and a bit overs with just two wickets in hand.

Paul joined Pikey and the pair batted beautifully, running the singles and putting the bad ball away to the boundary. All the while, DT paced nervously back and forth on the sidelines, sweating and whispering ‘Don’t get out, don’t get out’ under his breath.
At the end of over 39, Pabs and JP had taken the score on to 179-8.
4 needed off the last over.

Ball 1: Paul glances one behind square on the leg side. Pikey turns down the run, not wanting to risk the run out with only Dave left in the hutch. Dot: 179-8: 4 needed off 5 balls
Ball 2: with the field in, Paul looks to finish it with one hit over the top but he doesn’t get a good contact. The ball goes in the air and mid on back peddles to get under it. 11 Sri Lankans pray ‘catch it’; 11 Casuals pray ‘drop it’ – but he catches it. Bollocks! Paul caught for a good 18. 179-9: 4 needed off 4 balls.
Ball 3: Dave in but Pikey on strike as the batsmen crossed. JP hits one to leg and they run but it’s only going to be a single bringing DT on strike, but one of the fielders throws the ball in wildly allowing the overthrow! 181-9: 2 needed off 3 balls and Pikey back on strike!
Ball 4: JP looks to sweep one hard into the leg side but misses it and is bowled! 181 all out and whilst the Sri Lankans whoop and holler with delight, Casual heads drop for the first and only time that day as the realisation sinks in that we’ve lost by 1 run.

Pikey’s 39 was a superb effort, a really well structured and intelligent innings and just such a shame that he couldn’t quite get us over the line. It’s always hard to lose a close game like that and you are forever second guessing where you lost that extra run, but in hindsight, it was a brilliant game to play in, everybody got to do a bit and it was really exciting at the end. You wouldn’t argue too much if every Sunday turned out like this.

J Furnham lbw 4
J Roach lbw 26
Mahesh lbw 6
Tesh bowled 8
Shaky caught 26
Steve bowled 30
Pikey bowled 39
Foxy run out 0
Mohamed bowled 6
Pablo caught 18
DT not out 0

Sri Lankans won by 1 run

 

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