Yet things could not have started brighter for Duffield. Michael Poyner attacked from his very first delivery and clean bowled one of the Lowe brothers with his third delivery. A wicket maiden for Mike and only one off his second over, with tight bowling at the other end by Marcus Hjorth, saw Duffield start impressively, with Quarndon restricted to three runs off three overs with the loss of one wicket. Quarndon's final total off their twenty overs of 103 was largely the result of a simply brilliant innings by Josh Lowe. Defending well at the start, it was the pacing of the innings that was most impressive, as he helped increase the run rate steadily and then began to play more aggressive strokes towards the middle and latter parts of the innings. Retiring, as the rules stipulate, on 50, Lowe had hit five boundaries, including two splendid off-drives and one towering six straight down the ground. Darren Hoff who batted through the entire innings from the first over for a score of 22 not out partnered Lowe for some time. This score of 22 did not, however, reflect the technical ability of Hoff who demonstrated a fine array of shots with classic straight-bat technique and timing. Fell and Hanson both succumbed to last-few-overs slogs, with the latter providing a high catch that Hamilton got under and took routinely.
Duffield's new pre-match warm-ups, intended to stop silly runs being given away in the early stages, appeared to work well, with the opening bowlers seemingly nicely loosened up, and the fielding being mostly good. Quarndon lost one wicket to a run-out, which saw an excellent throw go straight into Hamilton’s gloves, who then quickly removed the bails. Pick of the bowling figures were Poyner (4-1-10-1) and Hjorth (4-1-8-1), although all other bowlers struggled with economy. A score of 103, then, at a run rate of 5.15, appeared obtainable, and Duffield certainly set about it in the right way.
Duffield, from the first over, reached the required run rate of 5 an over and were successful in maintaining this for over half the innings. Bygraves and Hamilton looked assured at the crease, and Nick was playing especially well square of the wicket, playing some excellent cuts. Quarndon's bowling attack was, in fact, largely ineffective, with few appeals or chances and a helpful amount of extras, largely in the shape of byes which flew past the wicket keeper and down the Quarndon slope for four. This impressive display from Duffield continued until Bygraves was somewhat disappointingly dismissed for 30. Having played such a solid innings, it was a great shame that Nick did not go on to match the score of Quarndon's opener and get a half-century. As it was, feeling that more aggression was needed in the run chase, Nick chose to come down the wicket, swung, missed and was bowled. This, with the score at 71, and even when Hamilton followed back into the pavilion a few balls later for 22, should not have been a disaster.
Chasing 104 for victory, and with senior batsmen still to come, it should have been possible for Duffield to continue where the Captain left off. It was the more senior batsmen, however, that were the biggest failure. Both Poyner and Williams scored ducks. Although well pitched deliveries, neither batsman will be at all happy with their dismissals. Poyner in particular relishes a run chase and Williams, who was bowled off his pads, is in desperate need of runs after a series of no-scores. Jerry's attempt to change the batting order should, on paper, have worked, and it looked like a good way to go about getting the runs, but alas the batsmen could not put into practice the theory. Some credit must go here to the Quarndon skipper, who shrewdly left Lowe, his opening bowler, with overs remaining for the rest of the Duffield innings. By bringing his best bowler back on it gave the Duffield batsmen no chance to settle at the crease, and didn't allow later batsmen the chance to hit out. This is a tactic that Duffield may be advised to try, so as to avoid the situation where the second and third change bowlers are coming on just as the batsman is in a rhythm and looking for runs. The collapse from 71 for no loss to 83 for five prevented Duffield from chasing victory. It was left to players such as Marcus to come in at the end chasing ridiculous targets such as 5 boundaries in an over. To their credit, these batsmen played sensibly and batted out the overs ending on 97-5, a loss by 7 runs. It is, however, impossible for the younger players to hit the ball in the way that the older players such as Nick do. The younger players should feel pleased with their efforts despite what was a very disappointing night for Duffield.
© Andy Williams. Any factual inaccuracies are probably the result of me discovering that Quarndon has the best bar in junior cricket
Related Links:
The Young Guns
|
Contact SportNetwork.net | Join Us: Official | Join Us: Unofficial | Advertise on SportNetwork.net | Complain | Our Links
