Match Report vs Rhiwbina
5 June 2013 @ Wenvoe (Skipper Winkie, report JR)
A glorious sunny evening set up the perfect back drop to
play a cricket match. Unfortunately the pitch hadn’t
been prepared and the grass on the square was long enough
for daisies to grow. At least last week’s pitch and
the outfield looked like it had been cut and the pitch although
dusty didn’t look too bad with only a few cracks evident.
It looked decent enough for a Wenvoe pitch but provided enough
uncertainty that people were unsure how easy it would be to
play on.
I haven’t got a clue who won the toss but the Casuals
took to the field and Saj opened the bowling. Saj was quickly
into his rhythm and took the opening wicket with the last
ball of his first over. A straight one which might of nipped
back into the batsmen a bit making a mess of the wickets.
Rhiwbina 6-1 from 1 over.
The other opener was looking to try to swing at everything
but playing proper strokes into the offside as Dan opened
at the other end. Dan bowling off a short run up again quickly
got into his rhythm and he and Saj provided 8 overs of good
pace and line. Saj bagged a second wicket in his third over
getting the other opener out lbw with another good ball.
Rhiwbina were 32-2 off 8 overs and captain Winky brought
on JR, a few eyebrows were raised at this but apparently Winky
had a plan. Ash who had been kept busy behind the stumps now
had his workload increased. JR’s first three balls were
wide down the offside and from then on pretty much every other
ball of the first over was no ball that never pitched. Off
about the ninth ball of the over the ball found the batsmen’s
edge but Ash couldn’t get to it.
Winky joined the attack from the other end and brought a
level of decorum back to proceedings as he quickly settled
into his groove. JR’s other three overs involved less
no balls but a few double bouncers were thrown in for variation.
He managed to pick up a lbw in his second over and Ash provided
him with a stumping as a Rhiwbina batsmen came down the wicket
and let the ball go through the gate.
After two overs at one end Winky brought on Pete T and carried
on his spell once JR had [finally] bowled his four with Rhiwbina
on 67-4 off 15. Pete T picked up the fifth and final Rhiwbina
wicket to be taken, the ball knocked high into the air where
a waiting wicket keeper had so much confidence in his own
ability he decided to play with the batsmen’s emotions
by having a little juggle with the ball before taking the
catch.
Rhiwbina decided that they had start to go for it and their
skipper managed to thud a ball from Winky into the wall of
the club house for 6. The late push for runs managed to push
the total up to 106-5 off the 20 overs.
The book is a bit sketchy on the bowling figures so we decided
on a set of figures at the end of the match but I’ve
revised them slightly after trying to decipher the scoring
and looking at the actual total runs including byes attributed
to each of the bowlers overs which is shown in brackets:-
Saj 4-0-18-2 (6,2,6,5)
Dan 4-0-12-0 (2,7,2,1)
JR 4-0-24-2 (13,3,5,3)
Winky 4-0-20-0 (2,3,10,8)
Pete T 4-0-25-1 (6,5,7,9)
Rhiwbina setting the Casuals a target of 107 to win with
extras top scoring for them on 33.
Casuals set about their work with Kim and Gareth T opening
the batting. The first over started well with a wide, another
wide and then 3 wides . As the bowler found his line Kim took
the opportunity to plunder a six (lost ball into the Ely Rangers
football club) and two fours meaning that the opening over
went for 19 and the Casuals left requiring 88 from 19.
The other opening bowler also struggled with his line and
Kim hit another couple of fours taking the score to 30-0 off
2. There was some confusion at the start of the third over
as the scorers were unsure whether the same bowler was bowling
again. After his first over even the Rhiwbina players were
wondering whether he was going to continue but being the only
Asian player on the Rhiwbina side it should have been obvious
it was the same guy. He did continue and managed a completely
different outcome bowling a wicket maiden (although umpire
Ash only managed to count up to 5 rather than the usual 6
balls in the over). The wicket ball was a good straight one
which did for Gareth who was bowled for 1.
Darren joined Kim and was determined to stay there for the
duration being quite happy to keep out the good balls and
just wait for the bad ones. With only 77 now needed off 17
this was definitely the right thing to do. The other opening
bowler wasn’t invited back for a second go and a spinner
took over and managed to keep his end tight.
The last two overs from the opener went for 18 as Kim and
Darren managed to carry on picking up boundaries. Darren did
offer up a catch at mid on but the opportunity was rejected
on the third attempt. In his last over he again managed a
couple of straight ones and got Kim to play on for 28 and
then Tim bowled three balls later. Kim’s innings of
28 off 16 balls including 5 fours and a six set up the run
chase perfectly and made sure we were always well ahead of
the required run rate. The Casuals were 57-3 from 7 overs
– halfway there
Darren was settled in and Rich joined him determined to
build on his big knock from the weekend. The spinner bowled
out his 4 overs for only 13 runs and then the bowling started
to get shared around. Their skipper bowled two and a very
enthusiastic bald bloke with a very long run started at the
other end.
Darren and Rich carried on building the partnership and
hitting the bad balls for four. Rich managed to swipe a couple
over the outstretched arms of slip and Darren offered another
catch up to their skipper who again rejected the opportunity.
In six overs they managed to add 45 runs to the total before
the bald guy with the long run up found the right line and
celebrated bowling Darren like the wicket had just won the
Ashes. Darren finished on another excellent score of 24 from
42 balls including 3 fours, providing the backbone of the
innings. The Casuals were on 99-4 from 13.1 and within touching
distance of the target.
Ash joined Rich and struck a boundary and a two from the
rest of the 14th over. Rich finished the win off against the
bowler in shorts halfway through the 15th over after convincing
Ash to come back for the two runs needed to win the game.
Rich finished on 16 not out from 12 balls including 3 fours
and Ash had 6 not out from 5. Again the extras were the top
scorers with 32 including 21 wides as the Casuals finished
107-4 off 14.3 overs to complete another good win.
Kim 28
Gareth 1
Darren 24
Tim 0
Rich 16 no
Akbari 6 no
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