Match Report vs Cardiff
Cavaliers 4 May 2010@ Llanrumney (Skipper Dan, Report
Cheese)
After the morning promised a bit of sunshine and slightly
higher temperatures it was disappointing to turn up at Llanrumney
in overcast conditions and a bit of a chill in the air.
Anyway the casuals moved out of the sanctuary of the changing
rooms to do battle. Dan won the toss and decided to bowl.
This was after he declined the opportunity to look at the
wicket, in hind sight a little look would have been advantageous
as it was very green and the bounce was erratic. Chasing anything
on this would be difficult.
Winkie as normal started with pace and accuracy though strayed
down the leg side once and was clipped for four with an elegant
shot from the opener. After this normal service was resumed,
only allowing ones and the occasionally two. In the third
over he found the edge from a full bloodied drive which flew
to Paul at second slip, it was a difficult chance though one
which Paul will feel he should have taken.
Dion opened up at the other end and started slightly back
of a length, though probably a line that was slightly too
straight, as DT and the Cheese were the busiest fielders at
mid on and square leg respectively. Dion suffered from Winkie
bowling well from his end and the batsmen took on Dion and
won more than they missed.
Both opening bowlers toiled well for the opening 8 overs,
unfortunately they were not backed up in the field. This was
due to some good running and an outfield that was not one
where you could attack the ball. Ones turned into twos and
sometimes three (the cheese masterfully running past the ball!)
Nads took over from Winkie and started with two wides either
side of the wicket though between them was a good dot ball.
This was a theme that would run through all of Nads spell
with some really good balls that had the batsman dancing around.
Unfortunately the good balls were punctuated by the bad balls
that were slapped for runs.
DT took up the challenge, taking over from Dion and straight
away seemed to get something from the pitch with a bit of
turn and the batsman struggling to get him away with any regularity.
MD and JR closed down the off side meaning that the batsman
looked to move the ball into other areas. This combination
of good bowling and fielding resulted in DT getting the breakthrough
when the batsmen tried to get him away, DT bowling him through
the gate. After the breakthrough DT had three more victims.
The first sharply caught behind by Steve-O with the batsman
trying to cut. Another bowled which kept slightly low but
the batsman was beaten in the flight and the last one caught
(apologies I can’t remember who caught it). Great spell
from DT really putting the brakes on the run rate.
Dan replaced Nads and started well only conceding 4 off the
first over, with the batsman struggling to get him off the
square. Dan continued his great work from the first over and
after only conceding 3 from the first 5 balls of the second
over, one run coming from a miss-timed pull that landed agonizingly
between the in and out field, the batsman had a swoosh at
the last ball which caught the edge and Paul took a nonchalant
one handed catch running around from point. Dan conceded his
only boundary in the last over and finished well with Steve-O
not managing to cling on to one that really goes down as 3
runs saved rather a drop.
MD replaced DT and used the wicket to good effect, with some
advice from DT ringing in his ears. MD went for a four on
his first ball but recovered well snaring his victim bowled
and producing a false shot from the new batsman to have him
caught in the covers. MD conceded only 7 off the last over
of the innings which was great work considering the timber
that was swinging around.
The innings closed on 157 for 7.
The bowling figures:
Winkie; 4-0-23-0
Dion; 4-0-37-0
Nads; 3-0-30-0
DT; 4-0-23-4
Dan; 3-0-14-1
MD; 2-0-14-2
Out came the caz looking to get some early runs on the board
with the cheese and JR.
The first ball as bumble would say was an event, a bouncer
that Ed in the end evaded after thinking about hooking. The
ball was followed by a stare from bowler to batsman and then
batsman to the square leg umpire, nothing doing so on to the
next ball another bouncer which the cheese gets something
to and the pair run through for three. JR fends of the rest
of the over which were good out swingers.
This aggressive opening is followed up with a maiden from
a strapping Irish lad bowling left arm over in swingers and
couple of quick singles in the next.
In the fourth over JR fends one to square leg and the batsmen
set off for a quick single only for a direct hit to come from
the fielding side and JR is run out for one.
Muff is up next the first balls he face are from the out winger
and while a couple breeze past the outside edge some make
contact with the bat and the pair run a couple down to third
man. This infuriates the bowler and he starts chopsing at
Muff about not being able to hit the ball, Muff agreed with
him and the over was finished.
The left arm was still going at the other end but after his
third over either from being tried or lack of results changes
to around the wicket spin which was almost impossible to connect
with due bounce and turn.
After 8 overs of there was a much needed change of bowling
which also brought the occasional bad ball, Ed cut (surprise,
surprise) the ball down to third man and decides too late
on a second, as a result is compressively run out.
In comes Paul and out goes Paul getting a first baller, bowled.
In comes Steve-O and after a couple of prods unleashes the
inner demon and massacres one to the boundary or that is how
the sentence would normally end if not for brilliant catch
at mid on especially as the fielder started going the wrong
way and came back to claim it.
MD was next in and by this time it was getting quite dark
so on came the spinners and Muff and MD manoeuvred the ball
around nicely for ones and twos and the occasional four from
muff, one particularly a great clip off his legs to the mid
wicket boundary.
As the match was drawing to a close the Cavaliers took the
interesting decision to bring on medium pacer and in dim conditions
and the wicket not exactly behaving tamely the pair did well
not to get out. The last couple of overs were played out and
caz finished on 87 for 4 with Muff on a hard fought 36 not
out.
Scorecard:
Cheese 16 run out
JR 1 run out
Muff 36 Not out
Pabs 0 bowled
Steve-O 0 caught
MD 13 Not Out
Although the caz were beaten by 70 runs, the last ten overs
of the fielding display and not being skittled on a deteriorating
track and fading light spoke well of the commitment of the
team. If we had found some early wickets the course of the
game may have changed.
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