Turns out that I played a home game against a team called Kingfisher. It didn't look good straight from the outset. We had our usual mix of old duffers, small boys, sloggers, bowlers and Bobby Ewing. Unfortunately we lost the toss and we were lead to the slaughter slab for the ritual of sacrifice. Several minutes later we left the pitch after a batting collapse that looked reminiscent of the current Ashes test at Edgbaston. A series of ducks, golden ducks, out for ones etc and probably only 2 blokes getting into double figures, we left the field all out for 73 with Bobby Ewing batting right through having come in at number 3. He batted a total of 36 as I recall. It was that bad I didn't even bother to record the details or take any pic's! I was batting at No.11 and was doing okay supporting Bobby Ewing - just fending of the ball through my overs so that he could get back on strike and make the 130 so runs we needed on his own. Thing is, I was so focussed on keeping it together batting-wise that whilst at the non-striking end I was concentrating on getting the running between the wickets right that I didn't account for the potential of some particularly sharp fielding. The bowler came past me at the non-strikers end and I set off down the track a bit in the event that Bobby called a run, he hit the ball out to Mid Off and shouted 'Wait' and as I turned back to get back to my crease only 3 yards away, the Mid Off fielder took the ball cleanly turned and I saw his arm go up as he rotated to face my stumps side-on, I realised I was going to be short of my ground by about a metre if he threw the ball, sure enough he hit the stumps almost side on and that was the end of the game - gutted.
This now meant that we had to get them all out for 72. Obviously we didn't have a dogs hope. Our bowling was opened by Chirpy who had a nightmare and Tom Hills who bowled extremely fast and seemingly in the corridor of uncertainty. But fast balls off of bats used in the right manner have a way of finding their way to the boundary and their 2 openers were flying through the overs comfortably. Once they'd reached 60 off of about 6 overs Wayne gave me and the Wizard a go (Both Leg-Spinners) and sure enough we thwarted the run-rate massively, but given that we had 12 runs in hand to bowl the whole team out with it was still pretty much a lost cause, I don't even think Callum Sellars would have been able to make a difference! My first over I think I went for 4 with no wicket 2 dot balls and 4 singles as I recall, My second over was similar 2 dot balls and a 4? One of the dot balls was a Wrong Un that the bloke who appeared to be giving it the Biggun by leaving it and suggesting that my bowling was crap because it was wide of the Off-stump was all but un-done for the sake of a millimetre maybe? The ball turned in big and Wayne (WK) was already celebrating as it passed him as he was 99.99% it had hit the off-stump, but if it did it was a gnats piss of a contact and the bails weren't dislodged. The next ball he hit me for 4 finishing the game. The Wizard took a nice wicket, one of the openers hit the ball and sliced it out to deep square leg were Tom was waiting taking a catch a few yards inside the boundary.
We had teas and a few of us went out on the wicket for a knock about for an hour or so and I still got home around 6pm so a wholly depressing match. I wasn't that impressed with my bowling and I got the impression that the two blokes that we were bowling against thought that they had the edge over us, but to be honest they did, there was no way that they could have lost so they were able to bat with confidence and boldly.
It's interesting to watch batsmen when they're batting in practice scenario's, they do so with such flair and abandonment hitting the ball freely, but then see them on the wicket where they've got to make runs. It's a different story. As Wayne said we need more blokes that can bat.
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