Slightly bizarre circumstances at the start, as one of their cars broke down, and they only had 3 present at the toss. This was duly awarded to us, but the start was deleyed until they had at least 7 players, and the overs got divided equally (yes, weird I know!) As it happened, we started only 35 mins late, and it was 50 overs a side.
We had first use of the deck, and KQ and Greg opened up, as usual. Their opening bowlers bowled very well, giving very little away and maintaining good lines and lengths to frustrate us, which they had to as they only had 10 players, one of whom had spewed on the boundary before the start!
We lost Greg fairly early, but KQ was looking to carry on his stellar county form, punishing the bad ball. Flamingo joined him and took some more sting out of the attack before falling for 9. The run-rate was looking a bit lacklustre, but with them bowling well and the pitch being slow, we knew we needed to keep wickets in hand to have a go. Unfortunately, the next 2 wickets went down in 3 balls, Shermers bowled by a jaffer, Smudger LBW to a similar one.
Arif joined up with KQ, who reached his 50 when we were around the 85 mark, and they pushed us along as the openers began to tire. Karl fell for a very well compiled 80, trying to push the rate up, but having set us a great platform. I joined Mowgli with about 130 on the board, and about 12 overs(?) to go. I left Mowgli with around 200 on the board, and about 8 overs to go
Returning Buzz Lightyear's trademark mow into the road resulted in the trademark removal of his bails(), allowing the soon-to-be-chained-down Chippy in to mix up some hacks with some deft touches for 4. There was even time for a Calvin Priest extra-cover drive, on the up, for a gallery-delighting boundary, 9-255 off 50 overs.
As I said earlier, we knew Solihull could be brilliant or woeful, and the last 10 over blitz had taken the stuffing out of them. Early wickets were crucial, as any sniff of a chance, and they'd probably have chased them down.
Fortunately, with the Bird and Chipster on the new ball, we bowled tight and they got themselves out with the big shots. They weren't willing to guts it out like KQ had earlier, and were either trying to hit over the top off a length, or whip off the stumps. End result, a couple of catches to cover/mid-off, and about 4 LBW's!
Ben "I can run, but I can't sprint" Shorter was at slip, and though he shelled one half chance (sorry mate!), he took a blinder off Chippy, and a simple one off Reefer. All the bowlers bowled well, Calv and Chippy exactly as the pitch required, and Arif coming on for the bunnies. Could have done with the latter two last week though
So, what looked like it should have been an extremely tight game at the start, ended up a massively one-sided 172 run win for us. I'll take it like that every week please lads
Wombourne 9-255 (50 overs); K Quiney 80, M Grant 56, A Sunasara 44.
Solihull Blossomfield ao 83*; P Hughes, 4-fer, C. Priest 3-fer, A Sunasara 2-fer
(*They only had 10, so only 9 wickets to bowl them out.)
Wombourne 24 points, Solihull Blossomfield, 4.
Related Links:
WCC vs Worcester (1st XI)
WCC (1st XI) vs Newport
WCC vs Ombersley (1st XI)
|
Contact SportNetwork.net | Join Us: Official | Join Us: Unofficial | Advertise on SportNetwork.net | Complain | Our Links
