Not too many grounds many of us have played at have someone's washing up on the roof of the pavillion, but the site of the deck we were on perilously close to one boundary made for interesting, if slightly differing, comments from the bowlers and batsmen.
We won the toss and, as is our usual MO, decided to bowl hoping to contain them, and backing ourselves to chase a total. We started well, getting most things in the right areas, but still didn't make many inroads with the new ball. The Big Bird put in another sterling effort with zero luck, his 12 overs for 52 (?) could have yielded 4-20 on another day. As it was, it took Arif to make the breakthrough, the opener tatering a sweep straight to Sid the Snake at square leg. Their Aussie opener was using his feet well and leaving balls that missed the top of middle by the proverbial bee's penis, but fair dues to him, he made a very good 114.
We contained well up til around the second drinks break at 36 overs, but the last little session brought them around 120 as they had wickets in hand and made the most of the short boundary. DQ managed to blame KQ for his being brought out of the attack, Benny dropped one at cover that he'd take in his sleep, and our fielding went a tad ragged. However, as usual, we hung in and picked up wickets at the end to staunch the scoring, Hilly picking up 3-for in a tidy little 3 over burst at the end, and Wagga showing how death bowling is done. A couple of run-outs ended their dig on 293 in the last over.
Our reply got off to a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde start. Stuey continued his rich vein of form, peppering the cover boundary while Greggy couldn't get off the mark to save his life!!! A change of ends eventually did the damage, Greggy slashing one to point. Wagga then got one that went through the top, splicing to short leg, and Stuey was caught at gully. I then followed fairly quickly (bye-bye middle stump) and Hilly received a similar fate to Wagga, although he managed to get a nice little mark on his Derby lid on it's way through to the keeper, via his gloves. Sherms and the returning KQ at 7 held up proceedings til drinks, but Sherms picked out the man in the deep soon after, seeing us go from 0-36 to 6-64 in the space of about 10 overs.
Mowgli and KQ batted sensibly and punished the bad balls, making things look easy to us muppets on the boundary, and getting us up to around the hundred mark, before The Jackal chipped the bowler the easiest catch of his life. Benny joined the Reefer and proceeded to mix some unusual defence (unusual cos it was Ben ) with some mighty blows, one about a mile over the graveyard, and one inches from shattering a window in the pavillion. A few more wickets in hand and the losing draw, if maybe not the most unlikely of wins would have been on.
However, the deteriorating pitch had one more demon, Benny shouldering arms to see his off-peg knocked back at right-angles. Dale joined Arif who had by now made a well-compiled 50, but one shot too many off one that held up, and a good snaffle by their Aussie left us needing Dale and Calv to see out 12 or so overs. They battled brilliantly, until the opening bowler came back to deliver the killer blow, bowling Dale.
There were plenty of verbals going around while we were batting, some of it acceptable, a fair wedge of it not, but we'll leave that to the umpire's report. All in all, we were outplayed for 70% of the game, which in the end told the tale. Plenty of positives to take from going from 6-64 to all out 194, but we need to play a tad smarter if we're to keep the heat on the teams above us.
MG
St Georges ao 293; Daniels, 114; Taylor 83; Hill 3-15.
Wombourne ao 194; Sunasara 67; Taylor 5-30 odd.
St Georges 25 points, Wombourne 8/9(?)
Related Links:
WCC vs Coleshill (1st XI)
WCC vs Beacon (1st XI)
WCC 2nd XI vs Studley CC
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