Match Report vs Sudbrook 05 July 2009

With the majority of the Cazh waiting at B&Q, Captain Dan and Rainman Pikey turn up eventually after trying to get a scoresheet to Tesh (and his printer) as Smitts went home for the weekend with the scorebook in his boot… The weather at this point was lovely….

On arrival at the ground, the sun was still out, the flag was up, and the toss was tossed. Captain Dan lost the toss and the Cazh were asked to field first – everyone’s a winner! Dan, late onto the field took the first over with Andy F taking the second. Shag struggled with line and length (after hastily deciding to bowl into the wind…), and 3 balls into Porno’s first over the heaven’s opened and everyone made a dash for the pavilion. The sky’s looked set for rain, but we decided to give it a chance and head towards the bar and watch the Wimbledon men’s final on the tv….Captain Dan deciding a pint of cider would help his line and length (if play was to resume). Thirty minutes later the rain had stopped and 20 minutes after that, play resumed. And, if you'd been so engrossed in the tennis and not noticed the rain... you wouldn’t have known that it had been.

The game reduced to 30overs. Porno finished his over. Shag decided to come off his short run up, and last ball of the over, the opener (M Shaw) decided to go for one, connecting well, but travelling fast towards Shag…who took a very good head high catch to his left for the first wicket (12-1 off 3overs). He and Porno continued to peg back the batsmen, and in the 6th over Shag got the second breakthrough bowling his man (Karamouz), the ball cutting sharply from off to leg. 29-2-7overs. Almost identically, two overs later, Shag did it again(Philips). 36-3-9overs. Next over, Andy F got his deserved wicket, the batsman (G.Shaw) trying to go after one, but only spooned it to Mahesh at mid-wicket. 38-4-10overs. Due to the reduced overs for the game, bowlers were limited to 6 a piece. An excellent opening spell. The downside, Sudbrook’s ‘batsmen’ were now in…

Shandy and DB took over, with Shandy struggling to find his line straight away, Dave meanwhile found his line straight away and his first two overs were excellent. Shandy, encouraged the big hitter (Spencer) to go aerial to cow corner, where Shag was racing round, got underneath it, caught it but found it dislodged on his impact with the ground – bugger. Next ball another difficult chance was put down (literally just off the ground) by Mahesh at short mid-wicket. Spencer at this time was on 45. Dave’s line and length began to wobble a bit in his third over and was on the receiving end a big 6. Shandy however, finally produced a straight one and claimed a lbw(Hussey) for his efforts. 78-5-17overs. Shandy bowled one more before he was replaced by Mahesh. DB continued and though bowling some excellent deliveries, found that whenever he drifted, he got punished. The effort in the field was excellent, runs curtailed whenever and wherever possible, but the combination of a left handed batsman who's ‘eye’ was 'in', a short(er) legside boundary and the bowlers waivering line (leg) and length (full) Spencer took full advantage of anything in his 'zone'. The runs piled on...including 2 massive 6's over the not so short boundary...

Ed took over from Dave (in more ways that one….)and Mahesh meanwhile put some good balls down the track, and in the 25th over got his first Casuals wicket, caught by Ed at cover. 135-6-25. The big hitter was still around and was racing towards his century. In the penultimate over Spencer reached it with a single, next ball Mahesh got his second wicket, caught by Ed once again (who in the process lost a contact lens...). The next ball the big hitter mistimed a pull and was out caught by BA at squareleg for 100. The hattrick ball on was left alone by the bat. 183-8-29overs. Ed bowled the last over (with one contact lens) and got his reward – getting a one handed, one eyed, caught and bowled 3rd last delivery. The last man in managed to add a few and remain not out. Final score 198-9. At close the rain came again, but the Cazh were already off in search of tea.

A big total, but a very fast outfield, the Cazh had done well. A few difficult chances were missed, Shag, Mahesh, Ed and Porno also putting down Spencer (all 4 would have been excellent wickets had they stuck – though in fairness Andy’s was an attempted ‘6’ stopper and somehow managed to get a hand on it, whilst Mahesh and Ed's were lucky (or unlucky) to even get their hands to it). A few shots found the gaps, one falling close to Tesh and another next to Pikey – a determined performance by all in the field despite the total. Ed in particular stopped everything that came his way (and 3 catches)..

D.Lewis 6(o)- 0(m)- 24(r)- 3(w)
A.Furnham 6- 0- 25- 1
S.Hand 4- 0- 27- 1
D.Thomas 6- 0- 41- 0
M.Kannan 5- 0- 41- 3
E.Stewart 3- 0- 36- 1

And so off to tea and tennis, meanwhile the rain stopped again and the covered wicket began to dry out once more. The tea was excellent – many, many many cakes (including doughnuts) and a few sandwiches – marvellous!

Chasing a big total, we needed a steady start once again. Tesh and BA opened the batting and looked comfortable, both unfortunate to find the fielders when trying to ‘open up’. Tesh mainly dealt in boundaries, and would have had a few more had it not been for excellent fielding by the oppo, Paul went for the more sedate approach and tying one end down. However, after a couple of maidens paul decided to go for one, but only resulted in chipping one up to mid off (4 ), which was a shame because he was looking good. 32-1-10overs.

The sky by now had darkened – and the big black rain cloud completely covered the sky to all horizons…In strode Ash and with a swish and slash, he added 8 to the total before the rain came, it wasn’t so much ‘bucketing down’ more ‘skipping’, ‘vatting’ or ‘ ‘siloing’ it down such was the velocity of the rain….the pitch completely waterlogged within minutes….there was to be no reprieve…and the match was abandoned – with an honourable draw!! Tesh finishing on 23 not out. 40-1-11overs. Sudbrook after the same amount of overs were on 41 for 4…so it was a moral victory!!

An enjoyable game even though it was rain affected, everyone played in a good spirit and hopefully everyone enjoyed the afternoon out…and if anything is to be learnt from the game...always have a pint before playing....

Tesh – 23no
Paul – 4 ct
Ash – 8no

[Milestones]
The following Milestones were reached in this game. Congratulations to:
Dan Lewis - 300 wickets

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