Match Report vs Barry
Wanderers 02 May 2021 @ Hayes Point (Skipper Rob, report
Martin)
Playing at Barry Wanderers, everything clicked into place
that made it feel like the cricket season had just begun:
A WhatsApp from SteveO saying he'd be late, Rich on the whatsapp
group telling us it was going to rain because it was in Penarth
(it didn't) and people trying their best to drop F1 spoilers
for Dan. Rob continued his good tossing form, saw that we
had a good batting line-up (on paper anyway) and sent us out
to bat first.
Tesh started us off well with a couple of nice boundaries.
Martin managed to finish his first game of the season after
just 2 overs by tamely chipping the ball back to the bowler
with a bad forward defensive shot for a 3 ball duck (cricket's
a stupid sport). For the next 20 overs or so Will and Tesh
both went steadily, dealing with the slow pitch well. Will
got to his 50 but we forgot to tell him until he got to 51.
Tesh then got caught out with one of the many balls that stopped
in the pitch and was out LBW, for a very respectable 34.
In came a Cazh debutant Kiwi Sam/Sim (depending on how well
you can understand the New Zealand accent), our first overseas
players for a few years, he's not paid though, I think. Sam/Sim
looked solid for a difficult pitch and his first game in the
UK, at one point he played a leg glance shot where he actually
looked like he placed the ball between the fielders rather
than just blindly punting it into the leg side, which left
many of us on the sidelines bemused and wondering if he was
too good to be a casual. Meanwhile, Will continued to look
like he was batting on a completely different pitch to the
other 21 players, and did particularly well in coming down
the wicket and hitting several boundaries down the ground
to take the pitch out of the equation. There were several
new players on their team who hadn't played for a while so
we were accumulating a lot of extras at the same time. Will
made it to his 100 with a six and we did well in actually
clapping when he got to a 100 rather than forgetting like
we did with his 50. Sam/Sim then got run out by Will for 23
and didn't really look like he was sprinting to get in to
his crease in time which reassured us on the boundary that
maybe he was the right fit for the casuals after all.
In came SteveO with the customary "How many balls will
he survive" sweepstake, sadly none of us were right and
he got bowled after 7 balls getting 5 runs in the process.
Rob came in and him and Will saw out the end of the innings
and we finished with a total of 234 runs, with Will ending
not out which will do wonders for his average. Goff moaned
that we were 20/30 runs short, we all enjoyed our own teas
in the break.
Batting:
Tesh - LBW - 34
Martin - Caught & Bowled - 0
Will - Not Out - 125 (11 fours, 7 sixes)
Sam Clemens - Run Out - 23
SteveO - Bowled - 5
Rob O - Not Out - 2
Batsmen's Total: 189
Extras: 39 (11b, 1lb, 23w, 4nb)
Total 234-4
(Eagle eyed readers will notice the above doesn't add up,
no idea where the scorers (which inc me) went wrong lol)
We went out to field with multiple Casuals requesting they
be put somewhere where the ball wouldn't come to them, which
must have been hard work for captain Rob. Dan and Goff opened
up very tightly with Dan starting with two double wicket maidens,
both bowled. A large amount of their top order took a look
at the pitch, a very slow pitch, where the ball would often
die in the surface, and decided that this meant it was a good
idea to play massive slogs across the line of the ball. This
continued for their #3 and #4 too with them also both being
bowled, one for Dan and one for Goff. After 8 overs they were
14-4, Goff's figures of 4-0-8-1, going at 2 an over, would
normally have been figures to write home about had Dan not
ridiculously bowled 4 maidens in a row taking 3 wickets for
no runs (4-4-0-3).
Their #5 came in as we switched to first change bowlers DT
and Steve Biggs, he was a fair bit older and also considerably
wiser than the rest of the top order and provided some resistance.
Steve and DT both bowled very well and tightly, Martin finally
did something useful in the game when the #5 decided to hit
the ball to him at cover about 15 times in a row off DT's
bowling. During these overs the generally early season rustiness
of both sides started to come through which included, Jim
chasing after a loose ball while the batsmen went through
for a quick one, but then deciding to throw the ball at the
larger target at slip (Will) rather than the stumps. Kiwi
Sam/Sim somehow completely stacking it chasing after a ball
and bruising his thigh in the process. Then one of their batsman
hit it straight and hard at the Bowler's end umpire and was
only about 5cm away from ending any prospects of him having
any children, thankfully he was okay. Steve got one wicket
he didn't deserve when he bowled one 2 metres outside off
stump just for the batsman to chop it onto his stump. He later
on got a wicket he did deserve, getting the batsman to top
edge one to a well taken catch by Kiwi Sam/Sim at point. DT
also got a wicket, bowling a mystery ball which caused the
batsman to miss a straight one. We went for drinks with Barry
Wanderers 46-7.
Rob wanted to finish the game off at this point so brought
himself and cazh key strike bowler SteveO on. In Steve's first
over, he used the slope well (you can decide if this was deliberate
or not), and got one to come back in to take our 7th bowled
wicket of the match. In his next over, the world entered slow
motion as the batsman chipped the ball over Steve, he caught
the ball way above his head much to everyone (inc Steve's)
amazement. The final wicket came in Rob's next over as the
two slightly older tailenders made the mistake of trying to
run a quickish single to Dan at mid-on and took no prisoners
and decided to finish the game with a direct run-out, Barry
Wanderers all out for 58.
Overall, great to be back on the pitch, the match was played
in good spirits. It was great to get some new players involved,
and as always Will made batting look far easier than it really
is.
Bowling
Dan L: 4-4-0-3 (Yes I actually got the numbers the right way
round he really did bowl 4 maidens in a row)
Goff: 4-0-8-1
DT: 6-0-16-1
Steve B: 6-3-12-2
Rob O: 2.2-1-2-0
SteveO: 2-0-6-2
Batsmen's total: 40
Extras: 18 (13b, 1lb, 4w)
Total 58 all out
Cardiff Casuals won by 176 runs.
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