Produced by Cricket Statz - www.cricketstatz.com
Last updated 09-Jul-2009.
Match Report
After last weeks blip, we travelled to St Helens on Southsea seafront determind to put things right. Having won there vs Portsmouth II last year, we certainly hoped for more of the same. Fred won the toss, no surprises, we batted.
Colin and Si as the norm got us off to a solid start, Colin pulling their Pakistani opening bowler for 4 first ball. Si tucked into their other young opener's first over, taking 16 from it. We ticked along to 37 when, in the 9th over, Colin mis-timed a pull shot to mid wicket for 10 (30 balls). Matty J joined Si, swapping with Pete, who together pushed the score to 72. Ali had replaced Hafeez and bowled really good lines and lengths. He got Si, another miss timed pull, for 41 (51). Pete joined Jocky and looked in good touch after his week's break. He played patiently while stroking a couple of 4's. At 109 he fell for 22 (29). I joined Jocky in the 30th over. With a couple of change bowlers coming on, we upped the tempo, putting on 56 in 7 overs. Jocky reached 50 from 80 balls in this spell. I was caught via a full toss 16 (20) followed by Sammy Free after another 50 partnership 9 (13). In these 2 partnerships, hard running was so important. We pushed the fielders hard, drawing errors while Jocky was finding his straps. Fred and Jocky put on 39, Fred hitting 26 (16). Jocky reached his superb ton from 113 balls (second 50 in only 33 balls). Tom went run out for 1 before Jock fell in the final over for 123 (129) leaving us on 276-8. Interestingly last year we scored 274 with our no.3 hitting a ton. Good signs!
Best away teas followed, warm pizza was a favourite.
Tommy and Radski opened up, bowling good lines. Radski tired quickly coming into the wind but got a deserved wicket, Noble caught at slip by me 26-1. After 12 overs, 43-1 looked pretty well set. Their overseas looked tidy before Radski, who changed ends, drew another edge which I gobbled up. Some tidy bowling from Jewelly and Freddie pushed them behind the rate. Jemilder played some nice shots before Keith, in his first over, tricked him with a full one which was caught by Sam at mid off. Ali came in and had 2 balls to look at Fred before trying to smash him out the ground. Caught by Pete at mid off. Margerum brought up his 50 from 92 balls before being adjudged lbw off Fred for 69. Tom came back for 3 overs, getting 2 wickets before being replaced by Sam 'Harmy' Freemantle. What followed was probably one of the funniest overs I've seen. 1st ball - dot. 2nd ball - half tracker ct in the deep by Radski (Fred was still moving him round when Sam bowled it!) 3rd ball - 'beamer', no ball. 4th ball - 'beamer' that almost bowled the bat, no ball. 5th ball - dot. 6th/7th ball - singles. 8th ball - foot fault no ball. 9th ball - single. After the over, the umpires decided that the 2 'beamers' were dangerous and instructed Fred that he couldn't bowl any more, much to the amusement of all of us. Jewelly came back and grabbed the last 2 wickets, both bowled, to knock Portsmouth over for 198.
So we bounced back to win by 78 runs. Jocky batted really well, backed up by others chipping in. We patiently batted for 30 overs before accelerating, scoring at 8 an over for the last 20. 2 quick, significant partnerships of 50 was important to setting a big total. Bowling was excellent again, catching could have been slightly better. Still, everyone will be at training this week, something to work on. A big couple of weeks coming up with a couple of winnable games that could shape our season.
