Match Report
ANOTHER TIGHT MATCH ENDS IN FINAL OVER DRAW!
For the second week running, an excellent match went to the final over with the writer again having to survive 3 balls to secure the draw. Last week, we were 18 runs short, this week just 13 runs but in truth it is miracle the match went ahead at all given the forecast & weather leading up to the start.
Despite the predicted early morning thunderstorms and persistent afternoon rain, Simon Goddard and his team were eager to play and all arrived by 12noon in pouring rain. Fortunately the England v Tonga World Cup rugby entertained us whilst the storm passed over and we finally got started just after 1.30pm, about an hour behind schedule. Under Nikhil’s leadership we bowled first and had immediate success when Simon Duke found a thin outside edge of the opener’s bat second ball and Nick Freeman did the rest. The batsman departed grumbling he had been distracted by the square leg umpire talking to yours truly as Simon started his run but the umpires decided there was no case to answer beyond ‘sour grapes’ ! Adam opened up at the mansion end and with Simon formed a very good opening partnership – both batsmen played and missed several times and Simon bowled with great hostility, particularly to the right handed opener who endured a somewhat ‘torrid’ time with a number of balls rising sharply, taking the gloves! However the partnership grew to over 50 before the skipper replaced Simon at the pavilion end and immediately struck when Adam took a good catch at extra cover to reduce FSS to 59-2. Adam was next to strike removing the left handed no.3 for 26 caught by Jordy at mid off to make it 73-3. From that point the visitors enjoyed their most successful period of the match as their Kiwi skipper at no.4 and his fellow Wellingtonian at no. 5 pushed the score up to 135, but just 4 short of his 50 he aimed to hit Josh Griffiths’s off spin down the ground, got an outside edge and the ball spiralled up to backward point where the writer took the catch.Then at 143, Nikhil took the 5th wicket bowling the no.6 for 4, then at 161 Jordy Dyer took a stunning diving catch, running from mid off to deep extra cover with the skied ball coming over his shoulder – a really tremendous effort. Simon returned to the attack to bowl the no.5 for 33 and very soon FSS were 182-9 at tea.
Nikhil asked Josh to open the innings with Jordy, and against very steady but hardly hostile bowling, we made a good start but on just 6 Jordy rocked back to spank a short ball to long on, only to see the kiwi lad he had so superbly caught earlier, take a very good catch of his own off his toes diving forward, 15-1. Josh was joined by Chris Turvill making a welcome return to the side and together they built a steady partnership taking us to 74, before Josh was well stumped down the leg side for 35! Brandon arrived at no.4 but within 2 mins he was trudging back to the pavilion for a very rare 0, having been well caught at short extra cover. He was replaced by Adam who batted with excellent technique and application and it looked as if he and Chris could really push us on towards victory when on 22 he unluckily dragged on a short rising ball to reduce us to 119-4. On paper we batted to no.9 so there still seemed to be plenty in hand but firstly last week’s half centurion Nick was caught behind aiming a cut off a spinner, then soon after Chris fell to a catch behind for a very stylish and solid 63. At 150-6 we were still slight favourites until skipper Nikhil was adjudged lbw (again) for 11, but not before he had hit a superb straight six into the field but at 163-7, the game was really in the balance. With our last recognised batsman Dave ‘Suppy’ Joseph hardly able to walk let alone run due to his knee problems he had declared himself unable to bat so Simon decided he was our last realistic hope of victory and hit a quick 5 before losing his off stump having a swish! With two overs to go we needed 14 to win but Nigel was unable to make any impression against the returning opening bowler in the penultimate over, then ‘Suppy’ who had reluctantly hobbled out to the middle, looked like an ex-international cricketer for the first two balls of the final over but then edged his third ball straight to 2nd slip. Fortunately the writer managed to add to his club career record of 90 not outs by surviving the last three balls to secure the draw.
182-9 v 169-9, represented a pretty good contest but we really should have won with the batting line up we had, but all in all everybody was just delighted to get in a decent game against very competitive but sociable opposition.
ConcordeFleet Street Strollers 