Match Report vs South Glam 25 May 2011

With a warm but cloudy evening set the Cazh turned up at the lovely St. Fagans ground ready for the long walk down to one of the lower pitches, though with a surprise we found ourselves playing on the square outside the pavilion.

Captain for the day Cheese won the toss and inserted Glam into bat. Nadders and Dion took the new ball and looked to get stuck in straight away; Nadders contending with a short leg side boundary looked to get full and straight though unfortunately he has been playing on some 30 yard wickets so was slow find his length with this shorter version of the game at 22 yards and a couple of boundaries ensued from full tosses and the captain gave him the hook after 2 overs. Nadders came back for the penultimate over but this went the way of the first couple, with not quite picking up the right length either being too short or too full.

Dion at the scoreboard end bowled an excellent length and with Napalm allowing nothing past at short cover had very tidy figures and was unfortunate not to get wicket especially with the swing beating the batsmen and Goff behind the stumps at times.

Nadders was replaced by Gwion with the “advice” from the captain ringing in ears over an off stump line. First ball was a leg side half tracker that was swotted away for four. Next ball was fuller but still leg stump and this was helper around the corner as well but straight to Ed at square leg, who held on for a tidy catch.

Now looking to make some overs up from the occasional bowlers, the ball was placed in Tesh’s hands, the captain hoping that the two overs would not go for too many, after the first two balls disappeared for 4, there was an all too familiar sinking feeling though Tesh to his credited came back very well conceding only 15 off the remaining 22 deliveries and was rewarded by picking up Glam’s dangerous looking number 3, playing on.

Gaz (the welsh one) replaced Gwion looking for a bit more bounce than he got from Wenvoe a week ago and started well with great shape away from the batsmen, in his second over after 4 dots the opener (who had already reached fifty) had a wild swing, missed and was fleetingly saved by his pad only for the umpire to give the lbw.

JR took the last couple overs from the scoreboard end with the same advice given that he should look to bowl an off side line; the answer came back “ I’ll try but I don’t really know where its going” which did not inspire and everyone was duly sent to the boundary. Well not to worry as JR’s forth delivery took a wicket which I though was a very generous lbw (it pitch outside leg) and as they say one brings two; with the new batsmen looking to go leg side from a wide off delivery only to spoon it to Ed at midwicket. JR’s last over only had 6 runs scored off the bat and 3 of these where needless as Kim put in a lazy bit of fielding turning a single into four; he was probably tired from all the jawing to the opposition on the boundary.

Nadders; 3 overs – 0 maidens – 39 runs – 0 wicket
Dion; 4-0-16-0
Gwion; 4-0-17-1
Gareth; 3-1-13-1
JR; 2-0-21-2
Tesh; 4-0-23-1

South Glam finished on 136-6 with the total under what we though but more than I would have liked when they were 85-3 off 15overs.

Napalm and Kim opened the batting for the cazh with us only looking 7 an over a slowish start would not matter as long as we kept wickets in hand. Napalm on the other hand felt it was time to get on with after blocking the first ball skied one to the cover boundary, luckily the fielder completely missed judge the ball and in his attempt to field the dropped caught put his foot over the line and Napalm had his first boundary of the innings. Not put off by this first scare Napalm came down the track and put one over mid-off with 9 coming from the first over. In the second over Napalm’s luck ran out and was well caught mid on for 10.

Britpop came in next, still suffering for a fielding injury, was looking classy until one cut back a mile to take the outside edge of off. Ed was next out of the hutch and started with three wild slices finally connecting with the last for the first boundary in 4 overs.
Kim after seeing off the openers looked hit out against the first change only to be out caught to a good low catch at mid wicket.

Goff was in next with the advice to himself to play straight and eek out the runs, this lasted for 6 balls until a wild swing played outside the ball and was bowled. JR joined Ed in the middle with the caz on 55 – 4 off 10 and still being in the game but needing to reduce the number of dot balls. This continue with some success until the 15 over with the cazh now needing 10 an over, ed tried to slog sweep only to get a top edge and was well caught by square leg diving in.

This left the remaining batsmen coming in and having to go for it. Tesh hit a couple for great fours before chopping on with a strike rate of 120. Gwion was brilliant caught and bowled off a shot that had boundary written all over it, strike rate 115. JR was run out after a mix up with Gaz for a run a ball, 10. Gaz was out caught trying to up the rate for a quick 4.

This left Dion and Nadders as the last pair looking to get us into the losing bonus point area. Nadders did this in style with six and four off the third and second last ball of the innings before trying one last single and getting run out.

Cazh losing by 19 runs

Napalm; caught - 10
Kim; caught – 10
Darren; bowled – 2
Ed; caught – 26
Goff; bowled – 3
J.R; Run out – 10
Tesh; bowled – 8
Gwion; caught & bowled – 5
Gareth; caught – 4
Iain; Not out – 4
Nadders; Run out - 17

Good display we might think but against a weak South Glam team it really should have been a lot closer, in the end 26 runs coming from the last two overs and some pedestrian batting in the middle overs cost us.

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