As mentioned elsewhere this team usually send us packing with our tails between our legs. I seemed to remember there's a few batsmen through to around 4 or 5 that are pretty handy and then there's a bunch of decent bowlers as well, so on the basis of recent history this was going to be a challenge.
I didn't get away from Ben and Joe's game till late and this meant that I didn't get to Blackshots till almost 1pm nearly 1/2 hour late and everyone was there waiting for me. 3/4 hours later we arrived again as with last week leaving me with no opportunity to have a warm up bowl.
The toss dictated that we fielded first - always my preferred option and Jay opened with Ifty and a young Off-spinner Jordan and he looked to be doing okay. Ifty was steaming in with the fast stuff and it soon became apparent that the two openers had something about them and we were soon leaking runs at a rate of 7 + an over. Then with the spin they were looking to run singles at every opportunity and Jay made a few changes putting me at Cover and Jack at Mid Wicket ensuring that the singles were reduced. A few faster runners were put deep into the field to cut off balls that got through and for a while it worked a treat forcing the batsmen to try and hit the ball to get it through the fielders. For a short period during Wayne and Jordans combined Off-Spin attack the run rate was reduced with Jack racing in and cutting off the single every well, this then forced both the batsmen to try and hit the ball through the off-side where Jay had plenty of fielders and while Wayne was bowling well it worked and it was probably the best fielding I've seen G&CCC (AKA Thurrock cc) ever do, helped no doubt by the accuracy of the Finger spinners.
Jesus sorry lads if you're reading this but your score book was in disarray, it took me ages to copy it up on the day, but looking at it again it's now obvious that I got it wrong and everyones bowling figures in our book probably look slightly healthier than this although even with this and blowing up the scorebook x 10 in Photoshop I still was unsure about some of the scoring!
Anyway the run down of the scores and stuff........
As I'm primarily interested in the spin attack
Jordan Warren (Off) 7-0-42-0 av 6
Wayne Simmonds (Off) 8-0-55-0 av 6.87
Alex McLellan (Leg) 7-0-54-1 av 7.7
Dave Thompson (Leg) 5-0-41-1 av 8.2
Jay Shohaji (Off) 4-0-32-0 av 8
In contrast the fast bowlers best avearge was 7.2 and he took a wicket Stuart Farr and the worst was Ifti at 8.6 with no wicket. The 2 openers were dismissed by Leg Spinners F Qawood was bowled round the back of his legs by Wizard (A McLellan) when he was looking dangerous at 23 and looking to shift up a gear and Jay caught one out at Deep Mid Off after telling me to flight one in a bit loopy which I did and he caught. Stuart took the other in the rain the bloke slicing one that Ifty caught at Cover. Teja took a wicket in the pouring rain just as he fell short of bowling the last 2 balls of the match. At which point the match was abandoned and we all went in the clubhouse to watch England beat the Aussies in the 20/20 World cup in the West Indies.
Wizards wicket is worthy of more - it seems that he's had a bit of a wicketless few games before now and his first wicket for 4 weeks or something was this one, so to say that when he bowled the ball round the back of his legs hitting the stumps of a batsman that was looking to get the upper-hand he was quite pleased. He made Panesars celebrations look muted and anyone watching would have thought he's just won the Ashes for England! But I've got to say bowling a opening batsman round the back of the legs and sending him back to the sheds is pretty special for a wrist-spinner so he was entitled to his reaction and he did apologise to the bloke for his histrionics.
Alex and Jay discuss the win over Australia or was it field positions and captaincy?
Shall we mention the discussion on the field about how you should go about fielding at Slips?
Sod that I'm off I'll let them get on with that one......
We were hoping that after tea we'd give these Loxford Falcons a good thrashing - but they were saved by the rain.
