Concorde v Wibbandune CC

Match Report

Savage century from Jordy seals unlikely win

Drizzling rain during most of Sunday morning looked as though it might put the game in some jeopardy but it dried up around midday and the parched outfield looked barely damp by the time we arrived at Sendholme. Nevertheless, on winning the toss, we elected to bat just in case it had left a little dampness in the wicket.

Jordy opened the bowling from the house end and although a bit rusty, he bowled enough good balls to keep the batsmen on their guard until an attempted drive went low to Matt Stockbridge who took the catch very neatly. Nikhil shared the new ball from the car park end with his new, very slow left arm spin and as usual proved very effective, though a not quite as tight as usual as perhaps a ball per over was over pitched and was dispatched.

George replaced Jordy and now we had spin on at both ends and the scoring rate slowed to a crawl as the batsmen found the turn generated by George and changes of pace from Nikhil hard to deal with and wickets began to fall. Nikhil picked up two adjudged LBW and George 3 wickets with one bowled, I neatly stumped by Nick Freeman and one also adjudged LBW.

After an 11 over spell, Nikhil was replaced by Edgar who bowled some beauties as well as some looser deliveries but picked up the fourth LBW of the innings in his 5 overs. With Wibbandune at 107 for 7, this looked a good time for some of those who don’t normally get much opportunity to bowl, to have a go. Nigel Wright’s first over was rather variable but bowled an excellent second over. Pat Wells too looked handy until he ran into the perfect storm. It transpired that the usual no 4 for Wibbandune had arrived late and had been put into bat at no 10 as a disciplinary measure. Clearly smarting at this humiliation, he began to open his shoulders and six after six began to fly from his bat mostly over long on.

Guest Nick Cunningham had been a bit coy when asked at the start if he could bowl but it seemed only fair to give him an over and it was pleasing to see from the first ball that he could really bowl. Indeed, had I known he could bowl as well as he did, I would have had him on to open. Nevertheless, he did an excellent job of cleaning up the tail, taking the remaining three wickets, aided by a superb catch from Jordy, who having been called in from the long on boundary to stop the big hitting no 10 from stealing the strike, then had to turn and sprint back towards the boundary to take a brilliant catch with the ball coming over his shoulder, at the second attempt. The batsman had made 70 in no time at all.

George finished with excellent figures of 10-0-21-3, Nikhil with 11-1-39-2 and Nick Cunningham with 4-0-23-3

Having batted on beyond the usual tea time of 4.15, the opposition Captain had set us a stiff target of 217 to win in almost exactly 2 hours, a full hour less than they had taken to compile it. Whilst I was not particularly impressed at the time, events as they transpired proved him to be quite correct in his caution.

Jordy had earlier muttered humorously that he wanted the opposition to get a decent total so that he could get 100. Clearly, this was a man on a mission and so it proved!

Jordy tore into the bowling with powerful but totally controlled shots, mostly along the ground but on two or three occasions for six and so absolute was his mastery that when he reached 53 with yet another boundary, the team score was only 60, At this point, he was not getting much help from the other end as Edgar had walked outside off stump and lost his leg stump, Nick Cunningham and done the opposite, moving towards leg to losing his off stump and Nikhil had been surprised by a ball that lifted a bit and guided it unerringly to gully.

To reach the target, Jordy was going to need a bit of assistance and this came in the form of Nick Freeman who put bat to ball in his usual uncompromising fashion in making 37. When he departed caught behind, Will Stewart replaced him and in spite of it being his first game for a while, he carved the ball around, not always out of the middle of the bat but to great effect in making 23no.

The last word must be with Jordy who never gave a chance as he cruised in masterful fashion to 100 and then extended his own record for the club in taking his personal score to 137no (18- 4’s, 3- 6’s) to win the game with 4 overs to spare. This was a fantastic effort against what was, certainly in the case of the opening bowler, some very decent bowling.