Batting, Batting, Bowling, Bowling
14/05/2011
The Saturday Cricket Team beat Stratton-on-the-Foss 2nds by 5 wickets. TT reports thus:
E.C.C.C. v Stratton on the Fosse C.C.
The Easton Cowboys Saturday XI gathered at a blustery Frenchay for their encounter with Stratton on the Fosse and in so doing completed an alphabetical hat-trick of meetings with opposition sides beginning with an ‘S’.
Skipper Joe broke another emerging pattern by winning the toss and elected to bowl on a dry, worn wicket and the fielders, sharing a common border with the adjacent Frenchay match, assumed their positions amongst the randomly scattered rabbit droppings.
Both Joe and Rich produced tight, miserly opening spells as the opposition batsmen barely troubled the scorers, culminating in an attempted stolen run, excellently curtailed by a direct run out from the arm of Ben P – the original BP1?
The next wicket was a while in coming, until, like buses and bailiffs, two turned up at once and the fielders crowded the bat for Ev’s hat-trick ball. As it was, he had to wait a while longer for his third wicket, when some uneven bounce and straight bowling saw the ball roll into the base of the stumps.
The score accelerated a bit as SotF tried to push on, aided by a short boundary and lightening fast outfield but despite a few slip ups in the field the Cowboys continued to apply pressure, triggering another run out. Kahlu bowled particularly well under pressure and was unfortunate not to bag any scalps as your correspondent took the long view, scuttling from deep mid-wicket to deep mid-wicket.
Angelo, wearing the gloves, executed an inspired run out by parrying a high return throw directly onto the stumps, earning him a few if not the majority of the Cider Moment nominations and destroying the opposition’s base for a late assault.
Good return spells from Joe and Ev and half a dozen shuffling straight overs from the bottom end helped to restrict the score to a slightly below par 161-9 from the 40 overs.
Ev and his hired help provided the tea and an opportunity to play ‘what / where’s the contents of the roll’ topped off with a melon / strawberry melange, while those batting lower down the order took full advantage of the plethora of scones, jam and cream.
With DB absent injured, Angelo and Paul took the brunt of the SotF opening attack which fully exploited the variable bounce and saw the unfortunate Paul back in the hutch early. Incoming batsman Ben, from the outset more correct than a proofreader with a case of Tipp-Ex, helped Angelo to negate the opening venom until the latter was caught on the attack.
Ev played a watchful innings as the sky darkened and the score crept up and was unlucky to be stumped from the rebound off a fumbling keeper, bringing Kahlu to the crease. Earlier, a thunderstorm had been forecast for 7pm and as rainfall radars were consulted there was some mention of needing to be ahead of the run rate. Ever the man for this type of situation, despite claiming to have learned a new word, ‘patience’, Kahlu soon dispersed the opposition fielders as Ben raised the tempo too and reached his fifty.
However, when Kahlu was dismissed the Cowboys were still seventy runs off their target, reliant on Steve’s steadying presence while Ben continued with immaculate drives and pulls, riding his luck when spilt on a couple of occasions. Before long the end was in sight and for a time it looked like it might coincide with a century, but eventually Man of the Match Ben was caught for the Antipodean devil’s number, leaving the new blood (surely?) BP2 to join Steve in carrying the Cowboys over the line to the warm fuzzy glow of a five wicket victory.
This report originally appeared on Green Lung.
15/05/2011
The Sunday 1st Team beat Blagdon by 8 wickets. Dunc reports thus:
On the drive to Blagdon, a few spots and spits of rain on the windscreen were bringing out the time honoured Cricketers Weather Paranoia in me. That paranoia proved to be unfounded, but the conditions overhead were heavily clouded throughout the game, the brisk and cold wind bringing little from the west to change the outlook.
Bolts won the toss and elected to field as the wicket looked invitingly verdant though hard underfoot. The pitch also has quite a slope which is across the strip, making bowlers choose ends carefully.
The Blades openers set about the task of attempting to emulate their huge total of last week by swinging and swishing violently at any ball not aimed directly at the timbers. Some good quick bowling from Omar and Sadat fizzed past the outside edges. There were occasional connections to good effect but the batsmen never took charge of this part of their innings and wickets fell to Omar, one bowled, one caught and bowled.
The precision rapier wind in the outfield began to cut with increasing Zorro-like effect through the vast variety of Cowboy woollies, at one point blowing a rather weather-beaten sightscreen to the ground. Martin came on to warm our hearts with a display of medium paced bowling which kept the run rate low. His variations eventually paid dividend with a very full pitched floater bowling their number one blade. Interspersing at the other end, Hidayat looked to improve his season tally. More swishing, more missing, an even slower run rate and then what looked like the prized wicket of the big middle order thumper.
Belief and confidence among the Cowboys was tangible, and the introduction of “Wizard Wilki” began to tighten the metaphorical screws. Every time any batsman looked to get to grips with the bowling, a wicket fell and the youngsters of Blagdon, despite guidance via a sagely word or two from their elders didn’t trouble the scorers too greatly. A couple of great catches from Sadat prowling at deepish mid off during the innings helped with this. He and Omar returned to the attack, resulting in a regulation smartly held effort by Jeff at keeper and a cleaning up job by Sadat for the last wicket at the end of the 39th over. This fair sharing of wickets however denied Mark his chance at a fifth scalp and us of a potential double jug, as his last two deliveries had resulted in additions to the ‘W’ column
Though there was no swagger, all the Cowboys chipped in to a much improved and energetic fielding performance, Dave F and yours truly scuttling about up and down the slope towards the lower boundary. Justin and Dean applied pressure, staring out the batters at close range. Jeff had such confidence behind the sticks that he did away with use of the gloves from time to time, preferring a resolute patella or essential box as a block for some fielders returns. Oh how we chuckled.
Then it was tea, all neat and tidy, and above all out of that blasted gale. Whilst helping to clear up a bit, a task involving stuffing ones crop with a selection of left-over patisseries, your author was subjected to the sight of Omar displaying his muscled arms to the bewildered tea lady. I ask you reader, does the surrealism never end?
After the break, Justin and Bolts made a solid start to our reply, Justin producing the shot of the day square cutting the quick opener up a steep slope all along the ground for a boundary in front of the pavilion. Despite his own sound advice, Neil succumbed to another wide ball, skying into the grateful hands of mid-off for a good fourteen runs. Justin fell to a keepers catch soon after for twenty six which meant that my cakes had barely enough time to reach the initial stages of digestion before being jiggled about on the pitch.
However, with an asking rate of around three per over, the Cowboys could relax and just bat. The only real threats to an impending simple four points were panic, brilliant bowling or the deepening cloud cover. Despite the best efforts of The Blades and their youthful openers returning to the bowling attack, no panics ensued and Mark and Stocky 4 navigated calm waters under a grim assembly of assorted cumulus to steer Easton to the safe port of victory. The final runs came rather anti-climactically from a great delivery which beat Mark, the keeper and short fine leg in very quick succession, shooting to the boundary for four byes.
Another game played in jovial and fair spirit, overlooked in the classic English village style by a stout church tower. An eight wicket win in thirty one overs looks good on the website, pushes E.C.Sun 1ST XI up into the top half of Division 3, and will go a long way towards building the confidence of all the participant Cowboys .