Match Report vs Barry Athletic 11 April 2010

Most of the Cazh found their way to the lovely ground of Barry Athletic…and a few found their way a tad late, but Captain Dan won the toss…and decided to make a game of it by fielding first.

Jam cautiously accepted the ‘offer’ to keep wicket, with the incentive that we could review after 20overs…he did such a fine job that he did it for the duration. Winkie and Dion opened the bowling and the Athletic batsmen began steadily and restrained getting to know the wicket and the bowling. Winkie bowled with the wind and bowled as we know he can and does – sharp and accurate. Dion bowled into a stiff breeze with a very short legside boundary and did very well only occasionally drifting in line and length. In his 6th and final over the batsmen started to hit out which took the edge off his otherwise excellent figures – one of the deliveries also took the paint off a parked car outside the ground at the ball clattered off an adjoining building – creating a small group of confused beachgoers when they returned to their car 2 hours later to find a rather large dent in the passenger side door. 55-0 off 12overs. Winkie bowled straight through and the batsmen began to take him on too, though were mainly nicks through to the short back of point boundary.

Ed The Cheese set the tone in the field, though slightly differently than everyone else…he effectively ‘made’ his chances getting to balls that few in the team would have got a hand to, unfortunately he was unable to hold them.

Captain Dan decided to go against his own will and take over from Dion into the wind, first ball clubbed for a 4, a brief conversation with Muff at mid on “at least it wasn’t a wide or a 6”…next ball smacked for a 6…not a good over even if the deliveries weren’t bad at all! DT took over from Winkie and with the big boundary on the legside, as it turned out he didn’t need it, as he bowled really well and batsman showing much respect. Dan’s woes continued as the batsman hit a lofted drive to Muff on the mid on boundary, unfortunately Muff continued to run with the ball sailing above his head - the wind was quite strong and certainly didn’t help judge the ball in the air. A few other chances were put down and some lacklustre fielding would have helped stem the run rate and given some confidence to the Cazh, unfortunately neither of these things happened.

It was Dave in his second over that got the breakthrough, Raji the no2 batsman who had been the one to hit out, went for one to many and was stumped by Jam (54). 101-1 off 19overs. Dave continued and apart from 2 legside full tosses that were smacked for 6 bowled excellently. Dan resorted to ‘cheap’ tactics to restrict the batsmen scoring by signally 4 and then fielding the ball as it had plugged just short of the boundary, he then winged the ball in only for DB to excel himself by fielding it with his ankle…with the ball ricocheting off onto the stumps narrowly missing running out the opener. Dan took himself off after 5 overs feeling that he had given the batsmen enough hitting practice. 115-1 off 22overs. BA took over from Dan and although took the same punishment for his first 3 overs fought back well, and had the Casuals catching machine been switched on, would have taken a 5for. The opening batsman Malpas reached his century and kindly retired. As it turned BA did get 2 wickets…both eventually caught one by Ed and one by Tesh.

Muff came onto bowl with the wind (by this time the sun had gone in behind the only cloud in Wales) and bowled well taking a wicket in his second over, caught by Andy. Dan bowled the last over after Paul had bowled out, and his pace was just right for the batsman to cross bat slog his way to the end of the innings (in fairness, they weren’t slogs, they were powerful shots played across the line). Barry Athletic finishing on 247-4 - a formidable target.

A Hood – 8overs – 0 maidens – 28 runs – 0wickets
I Warwick – 6-0-32-0
D Lewis – 6-0-56-0
D Thomas – 8-0-45-1
P Stephens – 8-0-58-2
M Foote – 4-0-23-1

Tea was taken and demolished, many of the Cazh taking their time to return to the game…a few hangovers were starting to kick in!

Kim and Ed opened the innings and started well against a good bowling attack. Unfortunately Kim was to fall in the 5th over playing through his shot too early and spooned it to cover (5). Tesh joined Ed and kept out the good deliveries by jamming his bat down and jumping out of the way. He then started to show the way with 4 lovely fours, 2 through point and 2 through mid off. However a change in bowling was his undoing and was bowled in the 12th over for 17. Richie made his way out to the middle and made his way straight back again after (like everyone else in the Cazh) missing the delivery (0). 28-3 off 12overs.

Jam recovering from a hangover, big tea and 40 overs behind the stumps joined Ed. The pair set about their task to make a respectable score, it was slow going against accurate bowling and reached 50 off 20overs. Thanks to Andy F’s scoring skills, Ed took 66 balls to reach 15 runs and John 54 balls to reach 27 runs. The Cazh reached 100 in the 29th over, but Ed and Jam had hardly given Athletic a chance to take their wicket, even against the spin of Athletics’ 1st team spin bowler.

In the 38th over the pair reached their 100 partnership and in the last over of the game both Ed and John reached their respective half centuries, both finishing not out on 52 and 50. The Cazh finishing on 139-3 off 40overs.

K Swain – 5 (ct)
Ed Stewart – 52no
Tesh Hirani – 17 (b)
R Holliday – 0 (b)
J Furnham – 50no

An excellent innings by the little and large roly poly twins (their last 3 partnerships have totalled 369 runs for the loss of 1 wicket) and made the score look more than respectable for the Cazh. Had the Casuals taken some of the 9 chances they put down the score might have been even closer. Still another enjoyable game on Barry’s Island and the team plus spectators all had a good day at the seaside!

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