Match Report vs Eclipse
18 June 2014 @ Wenvoe (Skipper and report Shakey)
It was a bright evening at Wenvoe for our second league match
of the year. The fact that it was June 18th speaks volumes
for the terrible weather we'd had.
Dan open up the bowling with his usual - a maiden to start.
Cheesy picked up a wicket bowled in his first over and Chris
likewise induced the opener to lift the ball into the hands
of Dan at mid-off. But then it all started to go a bit wrong.
Ali Collier was dropped in the deep and from that point on
the eclipse batsmen began to swing the willow to great effect,
hitting reasonable deliveries to all parts. The score reached
82 after 10 overs with three wickets down but as we chipped
away at the wickets column the scoring began to slow and from
127 after 16 overs they stuttered to 140-8 with late wickets
for Dan and shakes. If we batted well at least we had a chance
now after a 160 total seemed on the cards.
D Lewis 4-1-9-1
E Stewart 2-0-21-1
C Harris 3-0-21-2
P Stephens 4-0-37-1
A Hood 3-0-26-1
R Holliday 2-0-13-0
M Stephens 2-0-8-2
In reply the casuals boundary count was a little sedate with
only three coming off the first six overs. But it hides the
fact that this was actually the perfect start. Tesh and cheese
took everything they could and after some breathless running
the score moved confidently on to 43 at the end of the sixth
with no chances offered. The opening pair kept running and
didn't give eclipse a sniff until cheese was out lbw for 25
(one boundary) in the 12th over with the score on 78. We still
needed 7 an over but the wobble kicked in again. Stevo bowled
for 1, Tesh out for a deserved 54 (4 boundaries) and Pete
looking to push it on for 0. At the end of the 17th we were
111-4 needing 10 an over to win thanks in part to the shot
of the day. In the 17th over Richie took a step up the wicket
against the pace of the eclipse captain and spanked a back
of a length delivery flat to mid-on for four as the sweet
thud of bat and ball rang out.
A whimsical Stevo looked on and said 'you know Richie seems
to be have got better over the years' and the rest of the
team on the boundary nodded in unison at the quality of the
shot. There was a reverential pause before we realised we
could say ' yes but some of us have got worse'. Which allowed
us all to recount stevo's innings of 1 with some delight.
Thirty off three remained a bit of an ask but it was then
that eclipse turned to leg spin and it was then that Will
and Richie made hay spanking two fours and three twos to plunder
15 from the over. The 19th over yielded two more boundaries
for Will and the demise of Richie for 10 so we then only needed
four off the last over. Two off the first ball, dot off the
second and then Will was bowled cutting for an enterprising
32 (5 boundaries). Two to win and three balls left!
After the earlier stutter batters seven, eight and nine had
been padded up for some time. Dan was already in the middle
standing resolute on nought not out and not facing, so Paul
had to go out to finish the game off. Inexplicably the eclipse
captain brought in all his fielders as if he was telling the
batsman just to clobber it for four. So Paul faced one ball
and clobbered it through the covers for four to win the game
with two balls remaining. A great game of cricket and not
even a mention of the controversial boundary call for four
during their innings! The pub was awash with crisps and the
casuals on best behaviour as Chris for some reason brought
along a young lady to say hello to the team. Three wins in
a row is technically a run.
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