Match Report vs Abercarn 22 May 2011@

After 20 overs we had Abercarn 93 for 6 and there was a really energy in the field bowling was quite economical and there had been only one dropped chance. Unfortunately 3 hours earlier this happened;

Ed won the toss and elected to bat first, 10 minutes later when the captain came into bat we the score at 12 for 4 he started to regret the decision only to drop further to the nadir to 18 for 6.

The story of the top order will not last long as they did not!
Napalm got bored after the first over and skied one to mid-on; Martin got one that jumped on him and gloved it in front him for self preservation and was caught by the wicket keeper running in front; Will tickled one behind while trying to keep them out; Steve after looking very accomplished decided to leave one and was castled; Pete got a great yorker first ball and back in the hutch.

Ed and Goff came together with the score on 18 for 6 after 6 overs with a hill to climb, then the best player of the day for the cazh, the opposition captain, made his first good decision and brought on the change of bowling which allowed Ed and Goff to easy the cazh embarrassment. This was until Goff eyed up a full toss and smacked to the very long leg side boundary and picked out the only fielder and was well caught.
Paul joined Ed and runs kept on trickling in until Ed was out for one than moved away caught his outside edge.

Stephens’ came together in the middle and almost blows as Paul was run out. I will let Mark and Paul have their say on this and stay out of the way!
Dion was in at 10 and continue his good batting form rotating the strike well only to put too much into one of the drives and drag his foot out of the crease and was well stumped. Foxy lasted only a couple of balls until he was cleaned up; Shakey left stranded not out.

Napalm; 1 caught (mid-on)
Martin; 1 caught (wicket-keeper)
Will; 5 caught (behind)
Steve; 7 bowled
Ed; 49 caught (behind)
Pete; 0 bowled
Goff; 7 caught (deep mid-wicket)
Paul; 3 Run Out
Mark; 4 Not Out
Iain; 5 stumped
John; 0 bowled

Total; 92 all out

The opposition captain was curious if we wanted tea at this stage and was informed in no uncertain terms that cazh would be sitting down for tea.

Tea was fantastic from white and brown sandwiches to the vogue of the season so far, half scones with jam and cream. The batsman argued the reasoning behind their dismissal but none more vehemently than the one involving the Stephens’ brothers (quite car on the way back!). On the plate of discussion was goats cheese not being cheese (don’t get me started) and brown not being bread.

After a very long and slow tea, the cazh took the field feeling that if we made inroads into their batting that we could gain back some respectability and then who knows, this is when their captain played his next trump and reserved their order.

Paul opened the innings bowling to a bit of a bunny but kept it tight. Dion took the other end and with the bunny looking to get his first run on the board pushed the ball to Steve at extra cover and set off, the non striker quiet rightly did not see this as a run but could not turn the onrushing batsmen back and Steve put in a good throw which Goff, making his season debut at wicket keeper, gathered and took off a bail.

Paul followed by pulling the remaining opener into an expansive shot and quick work behind the stumps from Goff saw him stumped. This had Abercarn wobbling on 0 for 2 off 3 overs; Dion continue to pile on the pressure bowling the number 4 leaving Abercarn 19 for 3 off 8 overs.

Will and Foxy was the next bowling partnership. Will made a good start with a maiden and kept the pressure on allowing only the odd single. Foxy was not so lucky, pitching slightly short and invariable getting spanked through cow despite the best efforts of Martin sweeping on the leg boundary. Foxy did bowl the ball of the day pitching outside leg to take the top of off with the batsmen beaten by the flight and turn.
Abercarn on 33 for 4 off 10 overs

Shakey and the new boy Steve were up next and both bowled well to a spread field, with Steve after a nervey start getting the number 3 to chop on out for 49 bad luck mate know how it feels! This was followed up by Shakey enticing a false shot from the new batsmen into the massive hands of Napalm, after the batsmen got some ‘encouragement’ from his team.

Though this was the end of the cazh resistance and Martin and Pete were given the death overs and their final balls were despatched in the same way with a loft drive over the top to bring the game to a close.

Paul; 4 overs – 2 maidens – 11 runs – 1 wicket
Iain: 4-2-8-1
Will; 3-1-17-0
John; 2-0-27-1
Mark; 3-0-10-1
Steve; 3-0-11-1
Martin; 1-0-4-0
Pete; 1-0-4-0

Cazh lost by 4 wickets

Not the greatest performance by the caz but the spirit in the field was good and well done to Goff behind the stumps for keeping the chat up for 20 overs.

And as Shakey will not let me forget, yes he did beat me to a ball in the field!!

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