Match Report vs Highway
Hurricanes - 13th August 2009@ The Marl, Channel View
(Skipper Muff and Report Dionne Warwick)
After the Cardiff rainy season had past, for a few days at
least, it looked like there may actually be a danger of some
cricket. The sun was out, there was barely a cloud in the
sky and it looked as if this was about the best evening there
could be for a game of cricket. So you can imagine our disappointment
when Muff greeted us with; “very sorry gents, some tyke
has gone and scorched the pitch somewhat and it looks as if
the game is off” (or words to that effect, perhaps with
a few ‘c*nts’ and ‘f*cks’ thrown in).
However, determination won through; some boundary markers
were found, a mat (which served no purpose whatsoever) covered
the bonfire and it was decided to bowl from one end. Now,
you will have to excuse the vagaries (and self-centredness,
as I can just about remember my bits) of the following report
– I don’t have the scorebook and it was a few
days, and a pretty heavy weekend, ago.
Highways went into bat and Winkie opened the bowling. Quick,
accurate bowling, as we have come to expect from Mr Hood,
ensued and Highways were under pressure. Warwick bowled the
next over and between some generously not given ‘leggy
wides’, bowled full and straight and picked up two wickets
(bowled). The wickets continued to tumble in over 3, when
Winkie’s aggressive bowling clattered into the stumps
– Highways now precariously placed on about 15-3 (ish).
Warwick’s next over went for just one but the new batsmen
stood firm.
A change of bowling brought on, in no particular order: Prior,
Stephens, Kannan, Hirani, Hand and Foote for two overs each.
Sadly the run rate soon rocketed as the mixed bag of bowling,
and some decent balls, were mercilessly slogged to the boundary
(mostly straight, square leg or somewhere in between), helped
on by the fast outfield. Actually ‘slogged’ is
a bit unfair, as there were plenty of decent shots on offer
and the batsmen looked in control. As far as I recall, Scott’s
bowling looked the most dangerous and he got his deserves
with a wicket, bowled (I think there may have also been a
catch, so apologies if I’ve missed you out – please
add anything below).
Warwick bowled the penultimate over and tried his best to
ruin his figures with the first couple of balls – too
short and hit for four – one found the gap but missed
the stumps, only for a quick thinking Smitty (WK) to parry
back onto the sticks and successfully stumping unknown batsman.
Hood finished off the innings with another tight over which
the batsman slashed at like a man possessed but I don’t
think ever connected with.
So Highways finished their 18 overs with 128 runs –
a tall order.
Sadly, it was a fairly typical Casuals batting performance;
some great shots but with wickets given away cheaply and lacklustre
running, the total was slipping away fast. Standout bat was
Britton, with an excellent thirty-something (sincere apologies
if it was more). Smitts scored well and looked like going
on to a reasonable score, but, like so many others, lost out
to some generally sound bowling (apart from the occasional
six-foot beamer). I’m afraid there was little else worth
mentioning about the Casuals’ innings, so I’ll
leave it there; needless to say we fell a fair few short.
Still, it would have been absolutely criminal not to play
cricket on such a glorious evening.
back
|