Scorecard

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI v Little Waltham I on Sat 23 Jul 2011 at 1.30pm
Great Waltham Cricket Club Lost by four runs.

Match report A feature of our season has been an ability to win tight games... and this one only just eluded us.

Little Waltham batted first and Farooq was dismissed in only the 2nd over as he tried to work the ball to leg but a leading edge squirted out to point where Mashy caught the ball in his cleavage. The perfect start got even better when Phil Baxter had his middle stump sent cart-wheeling by Hector. This brought the Coyle brothers together and they batted beautifully in a 3rd wicket partnership of 79 where the bad ball was punished with ruthless efficiency. Sucked into a procession of 'going through the motions', the thirst-quenching(!) drinks did the trick as the 1st ball after the break found the edge. HBS snaffled the 1st of his three catches falling away to his right to give Chappy a well deserved wicket as David Coyle went for a well composed 36.

91-3 soon became 97-4 as James Clarke departed in identical fashion after painfully scratching about for a few overs. An even sharper slip catch this time giving Chappy another wicket. And the momentum continued to swing in our favour as James Coyle - having brought up his half century the ball before with a beautifully struck straight 6 - picked out Hector in the deep trying to punish a rank full toss from Swanny. 107-5.

The word 'momentum' seems to crop up regularly in these little match reports and a 6th wicket partnership of 60 between Pat Howeson & Nasir wrestled the initiative back and was instrumental in the outcome of this game. Chappy bowled himself into the ground but ran out of steam and neither he, nor Swanny or Bunter could find a breakthrough. Howeson was perhaps fortunate to survive a strong and prolonged appeal that fell on deaf ears after a great legside stumping from Blooma. How crucial was this decision in the outcome of the game? That's for others to debate...

Swanny eventually removed Nasir (24) as 'Cheesy' held a stunner in the deep and the returning Ollie Fitz removed Howeson's off-peg to end his innings of 40. Praveen (3) & Naresh (8*) chipped in with some vital runs at the end of the innings before the Skipper rolled back the years to take a diving catch in the deep to give Hec his 2nd wicket.

Two key incidents in those last 5 overs... more specifically, 2 key balls. One that went for 5 wides when it looked like Chappy had cut it off with a great bit of fielding and the final ball of the innings finding the outside edge and running down to 3rd man for 4... the only conceivable place a boundary was going to be scored and it was my fault as captain for not recognising that.

In a tight game you can look back and over analyse every run you concede. As a team fielding performance it was up there with our best... perhaps epitomised by the committed efforts of Bunter but our bowling - with the exception of Chappy - was just a little bit off radar.

And so to our reply...

At 17-3 we were looking in real trouble. Swanny departed Leg Before, his disappointment and frustration aimed more at a decision that wasn't given rather than the one that was. He apologised. I apologised. We move on. Mashy looked composed until being squared up by a beauty from Mike Williams and when the only ball of the day that 'popped' found the edge of Andy's bat, David Coyle pouched a routine catch and gave Farooq his first wicket. Blooma and HBS then set about a salvage operation and had pushed the score up to 59 when a needless run-out gave Little Waltham the lift they needed... Hector was well short of his ground when attempting to turn 1 into 2. A gift for Little Waltham. A partnership of 50+ between me and Blooma kept us up with the required rate but just as I was starting to hit my straps, I was trapped Leg Before trying to dig out a inswinging yorker. I thought I jagged my bat down on it in time... but the finger was raised and I was back in the hutch with the score 116-5. Chappy soon followed and at 129-6 in the 35th over the equation was simple. 60 runs. 10 overs. Run a ball.

With Blooma looking tired but imperious and No.8 Duggers finding the fence with two lusty blows, Little Waltham started to look nervous and regular field changes could only stop the boundaries but not stem the singles. With the return of Farooq and Williams into the attack some great 'block hole' bowling combined with the 'fatigue factor' put the squeeze on and the gap between the runs required and the balls remaining started to creep up.

But every time it did. The game would take a twist. The gift of 4 byes brought us back into contention but then Blooma departed for a fantastic 83 and it appeared our hopes of victory were fading... until Duggers clubbed the next ball for 6.

And so to the final over. 8 required. 6 balls remaining.

Farooq clean bowled Duggers (31) with his 1st delivery before removing Ollie Fitz with his second in identical fashion. 8 from 4. A dot ball, a scrambled 2 and a single meant we needed 4 to tie and 5 to win and sadly all Bunter could do was squeeze the ball back to the bowler...

Credit where credit is due... a great final over from Farooq.

Defeats to your local rivals always stay in the system for a bit longer than normal... and Little Waltham seem to have an 'Indian Sign' over us.

Roll on Burnham... I'm expecting a very different game to our first encounter as unavailability bites harder than it has all season.

Skip

Ps. To help me get over the pain of defeat, I asked the Missus to marry me on Saturday night (Thankfully she said 'Yes')...

Little Waltham I Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
189 (0.0 overs)		     
Farooq ct  A Kendrick Bowled Fitzwater 0
Baxter b  Bevitt-Smith 6
D Coyle ct  Bevitt-Smith Bowled Chapman 36
J Coyle ct  Bevitt-Smith Bowled Swan 56
Clark ct  Bevitt-Smith Bowled Chapman 1
Howeson b  Fitzwater 40
Nasir ct  Elgar Bowled Swan 24
Praveen ct  Richardson Bowled Bevitt-Smith 3
Naresh Not Out  8
Gurney Not Out  3
Williams  

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Hector Bevitt-Smith10.0042221.004.20
Ollie Fitzwater9.0030215.003.33
Martin Kendrick4.002200.005.50
Mark Chapman9.0420210.002.22
Craig Swan9.0045222.505.00
Rob Kearney4.002500.006.25

Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
184		        
Adam Kendrick b  Williams 2 1
Craig Swan lbw  Williams 0
Andy Elgar ct  D Coyle Bowled Farooq 9 1
Gary Bloom ct  Howeson Bowled Williams 83
Hector Bevitt-Smith run out  Nasir 22 3
Simon Richardson lbw  Clark 21 1
Mark Chapman b  Gurney 1
Matt Duggan b  Farooq 31
Rob Kearney Not Out  0
Ollie Fitzwater b  Farooq 0
Martin Kendrick Not Out  3

Little Waltham I Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Farooq10.0137312.333.70
Williams12.0138312.673.17
Nasir2.001600.008.00
Clark10.0144144.004.40
Gurney11.0042142.003.82

  • Umpire :
    Ollie Hopkins & Olivier Spencer
  • Scorer :
    Shared