IBMSHCC Indoor Team B vs Bedhampton B
This league that we are in is INCREDIBLY tight this year ... 6 teams out of 10 separated by only 10 points after 7 games played by all!
The bottom 2 teams get relegated and having only come up last season, I really don't want to captain the side to another defeat and relegation. Our recent record had been quite poor with luck staying well clear of us!
Anyway, tonights game was against a team below us so we REALLY needed to win it. There was another game in our league on tonight as well and the team lower in the league won that, which will only make the league tighter!
Anyway, we started well by winning the toss and electing to field (surprise surprise). Tatie opened well with just 7 coming from the first over. I was up next and 14 came off my over as the batsman took a liking to my length (ooer missus!). A miserly 3 off the next over from Bob and I was up next. Four off the first ball didn't bode well, so I tried a little tweaker / off spin delivery and found that the batsman was not so fond of these. I stuck with it and only went for 1 more run from the next 5 balls :D
12 came off Bob's last over, but crucially a wicket via a nice slower ball to their batsman who looked useful. I followed up with just 7 coming from my over ... should've had a wicket, but I dropped the return catch which was hit low and hard to my right and my one handed attempt didn't stick. Still, 48-1 from 6 overs was a pretty decent position for us.
Now started the dual spin attack of Shripal and Kunal and they both bowled really well, limiting the opposition to single figures in all of their overs bar the last one. Could've had many more wickets throughout the innings had our catching been better - I think we must've dropped at least 7 chances and missed a couple of run outs, but Kunal finally held onto one in his gut and Foz caught another one via the side wall from Shipals bowling.
So, come the end of the 12 overs, they only managed to get 91 runs and we only managed to take 3 wickets, but all in all a good effort to restrict them to that total. With a bit more luck and some sticky fingers, we might've done better. I put it down to cold hands, it was freezing in there, although the air was dry as a bone.
Pick of the bowlers was Shripal with 1 for 14 from his 3 overs. Overall, we did extremely well to only bowl 3 wides! All of them by Tatey, shockingly enough!
Our batting innings couldn't have got off to a worse start with Foz out for a Golden from the first ball. Bob was due in next but didn't look remotely ready and I went out to bat, even though I wasn't particularly ready either! Their opener was a pretty decent bowler, as his figures show (1 for 9 from 3 overs!)
Curt took a suicidal run in the 2nd over, something I was not expecting and I was almost run out, but a poor throw helped me survive. But, 2 fours and a single followed and we were on our way.
Just a couple off the next miserly over and then it was me to face ... a couple of sixes and a wide later and our score looked a little more respectable (32 - 1 from 4 overs).
Curt saw off their opener but managed to eek out 6 from his over, so all was ok. They'd taken the other bowler off but I also rather liked the next bowler and was soon retired on 25*.
Tatie also seemed to like his bowling and scored 11 from 3 balls! Curt again faced a miserly over and then Tatie returned to plunder another 15 from the next over. 72 for 1 from 8 overs ... 20 needed from 4 overs. Tatie decided to have a march down the wicket, but kindly lobbed up a catch for their fielders, who, shockingly held on (they, like us, were not having a good night in the field!). The fall of the wicket saw Shripal to the wicket who played an excellent innings, hitting the side wall for 1 repeatedly and he saw us home with 2.1 overs to spare.
So, 3 batsmen into the 20s, with three batsman not out was just what we needed ... Curt finishing on 21*, Shripal on 9* and me on 25*. An excellent 23 from Rob was also what we needed ...
So, we finish up with 21 points from the game and that puts us up to 4th in the league and 20 points clear of relegation with 1 game to go. So we *should* be ok considering that we should get some points from the last game, even if we don't win (please consider that we're playing the team at the top of the league!). We're not mathematically safe and I cetainly don't think we can rely on the other games going to form, but here's hoping!