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Scorecard
Produced by Cricket Statz - www.cricketstatz.com Last updated 11-Jul-2007.
Match Report This friendly match against Curdridge - well, revenge match for the thirds game the day before in fact - took place at Reading Room Lane, a lovely ground just outside Botley and also the only place in southern Hampshire where there was any rain on Sunday - the deluge that heralded our arrival at the ground resulted in the match being reduced to 35 overs a side, and the ground staff hastily mowing, rolling and marking out a new strip as the original one was too wet. MJ won the toss and decided to have a bat - I was a little surprised by this given the conditions but I'm sure there was a reason behind it somewhere ;-) PJ and Colin Billson opened, PJ making a cautious start and Colin getting caught off his first ball. I joined Phil at the crease, and we both found it difficult to play ourselves in, the wet outfield and sharp fielding (not to mention quite a large hill) making singles hard to come by. We were in the 8th over before the first boundary was struck, and in the 14th over I was out for 14, horribly mis-timing a pull and giving the fielder at square leg the easiest catch he'll get all season. We were only on 39 at this point. Sam Floyd came in and supported Phil with some good running while PJ set about the first and second change bowlers with aggression, clobbering three massive sixes and several threes that would have been boundaries in the dry. Sam departed for only 1 which doesn't really reflect his contribution to the partnership. Father came in for son, and Jon didn't take long to play himself in and join the upping of the run rate, at one point hitting 17 off one over. Phil was finally bowled for an impressive 66 (5 fours, 3 sixes) bringing MJ and Chris Oliphant to the crease in succession, both hitting out from the start and making brief but destructive contributions. Sean O'Toole was next up, and showed why he was easily the best bat in Regional Division 4 last season, smashing his way to 26 (3 fours, 2 sixes) in just a few overs. He was eventually bowled, leaving Fraser Moon not out on 0 and Jon Floyd not out 52 (6 fours, 2 sixes). Their umpire, who I have to say was very thorough and professional (if a little over-officious), disallowed us one run under law 42.14(b)(ii) (running on the pitch, second warning). He certainly knew his rules! Our total was 194/7, which given the conditions and the cautious start was very pleasing. We had thought that around 170 would be a good score on this pitch. We'd taken an early tea for a rain break, so took the field almost straight away, and I think most of us were confident we had the game in the bag. Rob Carpenter and Simon Grant opened the bowling and both impressed with some very tight bowling, keeping the pressure on, which paid dividends as early as the 4th ball of the innings, Rob getting the opener caught with the score on 1 (I can't remember who caught that one). The number 2 was run out for just 2 after a superb bit of fielding from Sam Floyd (I think) running in from fine leg, hitting the stumps directly. MJ stumped their no.3 for just 2 runs off Simon's bowling, and we were on a roll. Fraser Moon came on for Rob and had their number 4 caught - a wonderful textbook catch by Sam Floyd, the ball coming down with snow on it. Sean O'Toole replaced Simon at the other end, and immediately showed hints of the enormous pace he is capable of generating, his very first ball finding the outside edge and nearly taking Jon Floyd's left hand off at slip on its way to a single. He was left nursing that for the rest of the match. Sorry Jon, we forgot to warn you, but at least you saved 3 runs ;-) Sean was only on his short run-up too. Two very impressive displays of cartwheeling stumps later, Sean finished with astonishing figures of 4-3-1-2, surely a sign of great things to come. Curdridge were now 6 down for only 34 runs off 15 overs, with a mountain to climb, needing another 161 runs in 20 overs. We kept our bowling tight and our fielding sharp and runs hard to come by, and the mounting pressure got us wickets: no.8 was bowled by Sam Floyd, no.9 caught by Sean O'Toole off Simon Grant, and despite their opening bowler hitting the biggest six of the day (it landed on the Reading Room roof) 35 overs came up with the score at 113/8, giving us a winning margin of 81 runs. All in all a very good performance by Sarisbury. A couple of class knocks from PJ and Jon kept our score competitive. Our bowling was tight and economical, we fielded sharply and backed up well and, with MJ encouraging us all from behind the stumps, we never let the pressure drop for a single ball. However if I had to single out a man of the match it would be Sean O'Toole. His destructive cameo at the end of our innings turned a good score into a great one; his bowling ripped the heart out of their middle order at a cost of just one run; he sprinted around the field like a whippet saving countless runs and fizzing the ball in over the stumps; and took a catch into the bargain. A good afternoon's work by anyone's standards :-) A well-deserved win, and a team that was a pleasure to be part of. Blacky P.S. Please email me any corrections, my memory is generally appalling ;-) The names of catchers were not put in the scorebook. |
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