Match report 20/20 cup V Failand and Portbur

The full moon moving out of Scorpio give’s you a chance to “shed your skin”, put the demons to rest, and you know, start fresh.

So with a few drop outs, some last minute Tinklering and 11 men selected and confirmed, in the usual Cowboy styley, we headed out through the rush hour traffic to the peacful setting of failand and portbury cc.

It was obvious on arrivial that they were taking this cup tie seriously, their team was out and warming up and they looked sharp. The inner ring markers were out implying that these guys usually play at a higher level than us. Do we care ? no. Are we scared ? no. The attitude was positive.

Rt1 did a Iggy, won the toss and elected to bat, tricky one to call really, is it harder to bat or field in the dark? will the evening dew slow down the outfield? I wouldnt fancy facing Kalpit with those trees behind him and the sun going down. Good shout to bat first i reckon. The skippers agreed to have a minimum of 4 inside the inner ring at all times and to use an old ball.

Nick and Justin were the opening pair, the wicket was good quick and hard and so were the opening bowlers, Nick returning to the pavillion a few balls later having had a quick inswinging yorker force its way under the bat and trickle onto the stumps.

Matt C then batted very sensibly defending the straight ones and punishing the bad balls, of wich there were few. Him and Justin ran well, but boundries were hard to come by, the fielding and the bowling was spot on.

Justin hung around for a bit, until one kept low and trapped him LBW, gone for 10.Grant came in and swung at everything in true 20/20 style and put on a partership with Matt untill Matt was bowled trying to pick up the run rate. Kalpit came and went for 9 having been hit in the box about a mile down the track. Iggy came in and smacked a few 4’s. Jeffo was a star with the bat hitting his first ever competative 6, Im calling it a daddy 6, it was massive, His wife and kids seemed disinterested, we thought it was great Jeff. the wickets then fell in the last over mostly caught on the boundry trying to put some runs on the board. All out for 90 with 2 balls left, a good effort considering the standard of the bowling.

Quick turn around then, its getting dark.

Their opening batsmen were good and just plugged away at us, we bowled and fielded really well and never gave up, put pressure on them at times. They knocked off the runs with just over 2 overs to spare, without the loss a wicket. Kalpit only went for 4 of his 4 overs, top spell mate. Myself being the most expensive going for 25 of my 4. Jeff was busy behind the stumps too, coping very well with the mystical reverse swing.

A good team performance all round. Well played Lads.

We didn’t vote a man of the match, but seen as though it was his birthday, he hit a 6, scored a very solid 17 and did well behind the stumps, Jeffo gets my vote.
Happy birthday mate!!