A bit of a stressful match to end a frustrating week in cricket!! Tuesday's and Thursday's nets went OK but they were lacking something. Then Friday night we had our Taverners match, which was OK - but it felt a bit stage managed to make sure it was close. I bowled OK - but I felt the whole time that I couldn't bowl on the stumps - so my head just wasn't in it, and there was no excitment about winning the match.
And then on Saturday we had a 4ths match away to North Kildare. I wasn't in the best form in the morning, and my mood wasn't improved by finding out I'd forgotten to close the sunroof of the car Friday night and it had spilled rain overnight :<
So anyway, I was looking forward to a fun day's cricket to shake me out of a slump. We didn't know what to expect from the team we were facing - but I was a little bit worried by the fact that I recognised a good number of them from a game our 1st team played there last season - what were they doing here in a game about 7 divisions below that one?? To be fair though, we'd a stronger side than normal too, with a couple of guys that usually play for the 2nds turning out for us.
We lost the toss and for some reason they put us in to bat!? We didn't do too bad, certainly better than last week, scoring something in the region if 130. I wasn't at all sure that it would do - but it did give us something to defend. My own performance with the bat was a major improvement over recent games, I still only scored the one run, but I faced 10 deliveries and was able to keep the straight ones off the stumps. Normally the first straight one is enough to do for me, whether I try to defend it or not! So it was a major boost to have my forward defensive shot actually working (to some degree). The ball that got me was a straight one that I thought was going to miss leg stump - so I played across it, missed it completely, and it clipped leg. But at least I was out because I played the wrong shot rather than because I wasn't able to play the right shot!
Second innings then, we opened with two of our "Ringers" who didn't have much success and were getting hit for runs way too regularly. However, the captain seemed dead set against changing anything. There were 4s being hit stright down the ground at least once per over and he didn't move mid off or mid on. Eventually one of the bowlers found his line and instigated a mini collapse with 3 wickets coming in an over (C+B, run out and bowled).
A few overs later then the captain brought on the first change bowlers - who are usually our openers. They bowled without success for a while - with the batsmen never looking in danger and plenty of runs still going straight down the ground. At this stage I was dying for an over or two, I was fielding at fine leg and point and had very little to do ... all in all I only fielded about 10 balls with a few good stops at point and a successful chase to the boundary to save 4 - so it was frustrating to watch the game leaking away and not being in a position to do anything about it!!
At drinks I overheard the vice captain suggesting a bowling change, but the captain still seemed set against it - opting to continue with the conservative approach he'd followed up to that point. At this stage the game was finely balanced with the score on 80 for 5. There were too many overs left, so bowling them out was the only option. Eventually with the score on ~100 for 6 the captain was convinced to try a fifth bowler, but unfortunately he didn't make the breakthrough in his 4 overs (came close to LBW quite a few times but no luck) and so back came our openers!
First ball, bowled! So 15 runs to spare with 3 wickets to take, it was all getting a bit tense. Our (ringer) bowler was by far the fastest in the game, but not all that accurate. They were able to work singles easily enough by just putting the bat in the way and letting the pace of the ball get it past the field. Another wicket for our pace man made it 11 to win with 2 wickets left. Then our other opener struck with a ball that was hit a mile into the air over the bowlers head and was very well taken after a sprint by mid-on towards the boundary. Three balls later I had a fine view from fine leg of their number 11 playing all around a ball and getting bowled!!! Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat!!
Obviously I'm glad we won, but I think we could have made it a lot easier on ourselves. A few more attacking fielding changes and a more frequent rotation of the bowling could have seen them out for less, as they were allowed to get far too comfortable due to a field that was defensive from the off. And we were bowling heavy so the skipper had plenty of options that he didn't use. Personally I was disappointed not to get a chance to bowl at them, having come off the back of two games where I finished with the best bowling figures. I don't know if my bowling would have had any impact - but it would have been nice to have a go. I'm sure the other unused bowlers would echo the sentiment.
Not to worry, there's always next week :)
A few overs later then the captain brought on the first change bowlers - who are usually our openers. They bowled without success for a while - with the batsmen never looking in danger and plenty of runs still going straight down the ground. At this stage I was dying for an over or two, I was fielding at fine leg and point and had very little to do ... all in all I only fielded about 10 balls with a few good stops at point and a successful chase to the boundary to save 4 - so it was frustrating to watch the game leaking away and not being in a position to do anything about it!!
At drinks I overheard the vice captain suggesting a bowling change, but the captain still seemed set against it - opting to continue with the conservative approach he'd followed up to that point. At this stage the game was finely balanced with the score on 80 for 5. There were too many overs left, so bowling them out was the only option. Eventually with the score on ~100 for 6 the captain was convinced to try a fifth bowler, but unfortunately he didn't make the breakthrough in his 4 overs (came close to LBW quite a few times but no luck) and so back came our openers!
First ball, bowled! So 15 runs to spare with 3 wickets to take, it was all getting a bit tense. Our (ringer) bowler was by far the fastest in the game, but not all that accurate. They were able to work singles easily enough by just putting the bat in the way and letting the pace of the ball get it past the field. Another wicket for our pace man made it 11 to win with 2 wickets left. Then our other opener struck with a ball that was hit a mile into the air over the bowlers head and was very well taken after a sprint by mid-on towards the boundary. Three balls later I had a fine view from fine leg of their number 11 playing all around a ball and getting bowled!!! Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat!!
Obviously I'm glad we won, but I think we could have made it a lot easier on ourselves. A few more attacking fielding changes and a more frequent rotation of the bowling could have seen them out for less, as they were allowed to get far too comfortable due to a field that was defensive from the off. And we were bowling heavy so the skipper had plenty of options that he didn't use. Personally I was disappointed not to get a chance to bowl at them, having come off the back of two games where I finished with the best bowling figures. I don't know if my bowling would have had any impact - but it would have been nice to have a go. I'm sure the other unused bowlers would echo the sentiment.
Not to worry, there's always next week :)
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