Scorecard

Great Waltham Cricket Club Sunday XI v Horndon-on-the Hill on Sun 28 May 2017 at 1 p m
Great Waltham Cricket Club Lost by 23 runs

Match report I suppose the disappointment of losing a game has kept me from writing this match report thus far. We performed well, against a team probably playing a standard higher than we currently are, pushing them hard for considerable periods of the game. However, I’m left with the nagging feeling of what if. A crazy period of half an hour, no more than 10 overs, probably cost us the game. It definitely forced us to play catch up from that period onwards and we weren’t quite good enough to get back on top.

I once again won the toss and backed our batsman to chase any runs they could get on a very flat looking pitch. Tucks and Josh opened superbly, once again setting the tone for the bowlers. Despite bowling well, we weren’t really able to control the run rate, which hovered around 5 an over for the opening 10. Tucks got his well-deserved breakthrough, nipping one through the gate of the left handed T. Stone. Walsh and D. Stone continued to up the run rate before Ollie, bowled the well set Walsh for a breezy 31. It was a good ball, almost caught him by surprise. This brought the captain to crease. West looked to dominate from the off, lofting shots straight, over cover and over midwicket to assert his dominance. Duggers toiled away for 8 overs straight, up the hill on a flat pitch, an unenviable task.

Consequently defensive fields were set and the batsmen were able to pick us off in the middle overs, dispatching the bad balls for boundaries and picking up ones and twos off the good balls. Maybe this frustrated us, maybe it caused panic as we saw the run rate rise further without any sign of abating, maybe 2 long days in the field started taking its toll on us but we simply weren’t good enough for the next half an hour. For half an hour we were bad, very very bad. A series of mis-fields, overthrows and lack of backing up cost us 15, 20, perhaps even 30 runs. It was basic errors which seemed to work us into a frantic panic turning into a spiral of ever worsening mistakes.

For all the negativity and horrific fielding, we appeared to put it out of our mind and finished strongly. We could have been looking at 300+. First D. Stone, chipped one back to me and looked entirely crestfallen he had thrown his wicket away to such an obvious part time off spinner. Next to fall was West, caught at long off, hitting one straight down my throat off Ollie, 6 short of a century. The Horndon batting line up saw the earlier fielding and decided to run for everything. With our renewed confidence we suddenly created 2 run outs as Horndon finished on 283, not quite being able to keep up their earlier momentum.

The batting didn’t get off to the best of starts as Clouty was caught off the skiddy Madder early on and Matty departed soon after in allegedly controversial circumstances, run out by West. The pressure was put on me and Dan as the Horndon bowlers sensed their chance to run through us with rain forecast and the sky getting progressively cloudier. We eventually came off after 17 overs, 3 short of the required to overs to complete the game. For context the game is decided on run rate once both teams have had a chance to bat 20 overs. We were a very long way off. I don’t have the book here with me, but I believe we were somewhere around the 60 mark. The rain looked to be setting in which would have caused a replay at Horndon next week. The clouds cleared and were able to restart, in as somewhat surprising turn of events.

I think we required something like 200 off the final 20 overs. It was a seemingly unsurmountable task, despite the good track and fast scoring outfield. It is therefore a testament to out batting that we had them worried for long periods of that 20 overs and they probably only truly felt safe in the final few overs. First Dan set about his task in typical fashion. For those of you who haven’t seen him bat in the last 2 years, I’d highly recommend it. More men kept getting pushed back onto the boundary rope as we progressed deeper and deeper into the innings. We still required 10 an over, at least for much of what I can remember, and the good overs the Horndon bowlers bowled pushed the run rate up further and further. We found relief in Cutts part time off spin, called upon because of injury to Marson I believe, as he travelled the distance time and time again. We required nothing but perfection and a whole lotta luck to win from the position we were in. Unfortunately we got neither as Dan had a half tracker barley get above his shins and was only able to pat back to Cutts for his only wicket.

Gary and Ollie made quick contributions but neither were able to sustain their efforts as the demands of the run rate and the lack of boundary scoring options (9 men on the fence to new batsmen) pushed them to their demise. The resistance ended when I hit one straight in the air to deep cover and despite a refreshing and entertaining knock from the kiwi all rounder (no, not Ben Stokes), Matty D we finished 23 runs short on 260.

Everything else.

1. We gave away 20 -30 runs in the field. We finished 25 runs short. It’s a shame but hopefully we’ll learn from that. We needed to slow things down and take control of the situations that arose and we did neither of those things, myself included. Next time we’ll do it better.
2. Batting was good, under extreme pressure, mainly from the scoreboard. Although we fell short I think we can hold our heads high in that department.
3. Opening bowling was very good and so was the death bowling. Both Josh and Tucks should take heart from that as they bowled to some good batsman at the top.
4. I think they were a little relieved to have walked off the field with a win in the end.

VIVO perfect catch of the match: D Bloom, running round from his lonely position at midwicket

YES BANK Maximum sixes: D. Bloom. Over square leg, I need to learn that shot.

FBB stylish player of the day: M. Duggan, 23 off 11 at the end with 2 big sixes to cheer everyone up

MOTM: J. De’ath, the strikerate king.
In all seriousness though, thanks for stepping in at the last minute.

Muppet of the day: We all know why J Fitz hasn’t dropped a catch since 2k9. He doesn’t go for them

Horndon-on-the Hill Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 9w 13b 4lb 
for 8 wickets
28
283 (40.0 overs)		     
T. Stone b  L. Tucker 10
J. Walsh b  O. Fitzwater 35
D. Stone ct  & bowled S. Harris 57
J. West ct  S. Harris b O. Fitzwater 94
S. Iqbal ct  D. Clout b J. Fitzwater 27
M. Sayers ct  D. Bloom b L. Tucker 9
M. Stitson run out  M. Reed 4
J. Marson run out  D. Bloom 3
R. Cutts Not Out  9
R. Madder Not Out  7
A. Clarke  

Great Waltham Cricket Club Sunday XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joshua Fitzwater8.0147147.005.88
Lewis Tucker8.0126213.003.25
Ollie Fitzwater8.0068234.008.50
Matt Duggan8.005700.007.13
Daniel Bloom5.004100.008.20
Samuel Harris3.0027127.009.00

Great Waltham Cricket Club Sunday XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 8w 7b 2lb 
for 7 wickets
21
260		        
Matty Reed run out  J. West 5 21 23.81 1
David Clout ct  M. Sayers b R. Madder 8 15 1 53.33 1
Samuel Harris ct  J. Marson b D. Stone 100 104 13 1 96.15 2
Daniel Bloom ct  & bowled R. Cutts 63 62 5 2 101.61 1 1
Gary Bloom lbw  J. West 9 8 1 112.50
Ollie Fitzwater ct  T. Stone b D. Stone 16 14 1 114.29
Matt Duggan Not Out  23 11 2 209.09
Ryan Brown ct  J. Walsh b J. West 9 8 1 112.50
Joshua De'ath Not Out  1
Lewis Tucker  
Joshua Fitzwater  

Horndon-on-the Hill Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J. Marson2.00400.002.00
R. Madder8.0135135.004.38
D. Stone8.0032216.004.00
J. West8.0040220.005.00
A. Clarke 8.005500.006.87
R. Cutts6.0080180.0013.33

  • Umpire :
    Dumpy?
  • Scorer :
    JT