IBMSHCC vs Curdridge
On a gloriously sunny and hot day, I toddled out to the middle with the opposition captain (who, incidentally, bore a striking resemblence to the New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori) and did the toss. For the first time this season, I lost the toss and we were put into bat. The previous time we batted first had been against Goodwood and on that day we lost by 10 wickets!! I was hoping things woud be rather different this time.
The resulting decision was met by my team with pleasure, as this mean that for most of them, they could have a nice sit down in the shade rather than having to be in the blaring early afternoon sunshine!
I sent Foz and John out into the middle to resume their promising opening partnership and they didn't disappoint, recording another 50+ opening partnership. Foz particularly looked in fine form, before he went for 1 big shot too many, being caught on the long off boundary for a fine 44. Cue many comments that he got out because he couldn't afford another jug ;-) But a good start left us on 61-1 after 15 overs.
Josh was next in, mainly because he had previously had to sit in his pads for an entire afternoon, watching the openers knock off all of the runs. Sadly, he only lasted 3 balls before being given out LBW. 61-2
The chef for the day, Ray Stanley, was in next. He was another chap who'd spent previous games watching in vain waiting for a bat whilst the openers knocked up the runs to win. I am quite sure his stance is getting lower with each time he bats, but he was off the mark pretty quickly. That run, however, proved to be his only one and he was out after 9 balls, leaving us on 67-3.
Mark Cross walked out to the middle to join John at the crease. There were a few sarcastic phrases of "well this will see the run rate go up" heard from the sidelines, but they needn't have worried because John was soon back in the hutch for 22 via a caught and bowled to leave us on 71-4. I didn't see it as I was getting changed! Graham Stride went out to join Mark and they spent an agonising 4 overs to get 3 runs before Graham tried to hit out and got caught at mid off for a 14 ball duck and leaving us on 74-5!
It was my turn next and Mark and I were soon building a partnership, scoring 32 in 10 overs, 21 of these coming from me. Mark seemed to be struggling to get their "spinner" away and after a few swishes and near misses, the ball connected with the stumps and Mark was out for 13, leaving us on 106-6 after 32 overs.
Tatie came out to join me at the crease and we set about trying to up the run rate. I was finding my range with the boundaries and whilst Bob was getting frustrated at missing some sqaure drives from the spinner, I was enjoying some full tosses from the young lad at the other end. I was soon up to 50 reaching this feat with a 6. Between us, we'd scored a partnership of 68 in the space of 8 overs, with Bob contributing 13 of these runs.
His frustration finally got the better of him and he marched down the track and missed and got stumped for 13. This left us on 174-7 after 40 overs. I was not out on 74 at this point and there were many calls from the sideline that I had 10 minutes to get my ton!
Well, there was little chance of this as they'd brought their opening bowling back on ... Who'd previously only conceded 9 runs from 6 overs. He was bowling well and got me out via a catch afte the ball hit the shoulder of my bat and flew up high into the covers. I was out for 75 from 55 balls.
This sparked a bit of a collapse as our last 3 wickets fell for the addition of just 1 more run to leave us on 178 all out after 42 overs. This was probably a par score on this pitch. Still, I was pretty pleased with my score, it being my 2nd highest in my Sunday career!!
After a sumptuous tea included homemade brownies and other such delights, we took to the field, opening the bowling with Himanshu Patel (first game of the season) and Rob Tate at the other end. Both bowled pretty well although Himanshu's first wicket was somewhat unorthadox, bowling their opening bat for 4 via a stump high full toss!
Tatie was being extremely miserly at the other end and the pressure told eventually, with Himanshu picking up a 2nd wicket in the 7th opener, clean bowling their other opener with an absolute peach of a delivery. This left them on 18-2. The miserly bowling continued before Bob got his reward for some fine bowling, knocking the stumps over and removing their number 4 bat for a duck leaving them on 29-2 after 16.
Matt Stride and Kev Hewitt came on to replace the openers and continued with economic spells, both taking wickets which left Curdridge on 38-4 after 21 overs. They were certainly behind the rate if they wanted to challenge our score and wanting to give everyone a fair go, I brought on Graham Stride and Ray Stanley.
Sadly, neither bowler could continue as their predecessors had done and via a combination of bowling too short (Graham) and bowling lots of wides (Ray) the scoring rate soon accelerated. Their number 6 bat benefitting rather nicely from this and continued to do so when I came onto bowl to replace Graham. Saying that, Ray and I managed to take wickets amongst the dross, removing their lower order batsman for not many runs.
Their danger man was still in though and he was hitting a lot of boundaries on his way to a fine 50. In fact, his 50 came off a ball that he drilled back straight at me, about head height. I got one hand to it, but it didn't stick :( Bloody hurt though ... but it hurt even more later when he did exactly the same thing and it hit the same spot again!! :( So, I decided to bring back the openers and whilst they did score a few more runs, they ended up 21 runs short of victory and as it was a timed game, it was a draw.
Overall, it was probably a fair result ... I'm not sure we had the bowlers to get their main man out, although I really should've taken myself off a bit sooner! A lesson learnt there me thinks.
So, from a personal perspective, I am still undefeated as captain and I'm now averaging 72 with the bat!! Can't be bad!! Not playing this weekend coming as we're off to the Isle of Wight festival. I shall leave the team in Foz's capable hands ... And let's face it, things can't get much worse, as the last game he was in charge of was a 10 wicket defeat ;-)