Produced by Cricket Statz - www.cricketstatz.com
Last updated 31-Jul-2009.
Match Report
After 2 weeks of not getting a complete game in, it was nice to have a forecast that would be a dry day. Paultons came to Allotment Road. A few changes were made with captain Freddie (Holiday), vc Pete (getting married) and Sam Free (wedding duties) all out so Agha and PJ got calls up from the 2's and Otis back from beach footie.
Jocky captained and started with losing the toss, Paultons decided to have a bat. On a dampish wicket due to the wet weather, Paultons eased to a century opening partnership. Ennew had passed 50 before being caught in the deep by myself off Agha for 58, 117-1. Agha's shirt came off yet again!! Fair enough Dave if it was a magical ball, but a long hop? Another 26 runs were added before Ag's got another. Otis claimed a stumping, not given. Si was convinced that the batter had hit it so claimed a catch that was duly given out. A further 50 runs were added until Alex claimed his 1st 1st team wicket, having Ray caught by Si at long on. Richman followed for 0 to Ag's followed by O'Brien with the score at 211-5 off 44.3 overs. 54 runs came off the last 5.3 overs with Radski and Jewelly coming in for some punishment. Jewelly's first spell was excellent (6-0-13-0) before finishing 10-0-51-0, not quite doing him justice as he also had 2 chances go down. Paultons finished on 265-6.
After salad for tea, including hard boiled eggs (for all you egg watchers) we set about chasing the large total.
After 7 overs the game was over however. Dayer, Si, Jocky, myself, PJ and Alex all went to some indifferent batting to leave us 28-6. Tom and Otis then put on 67 with Otis paticularly looking smooth. He was caught at slip for a fine 39 (49 balls) followed by Ag's for a golden duck (which kept me happy, meant I didn't have to collect match fees). Radski then scored a 1st XI best 16 before being caught. This only meant our 8-11 pre game favourite to collect the money, went to the crease. After surviving his first ball to loud cheers, Jewelly ended further away from collection than he could of dreamed of, out caught for 8 to condem us to a 118 run defeat. Tom finished on a solid 34* from 102 balls.
A bitterly disappointing day all round in my eyes. From the warm up until Tom's and Otis' partnership we were poor. Our warm up was lacklustre, with catches going down, fumbles and poor throwing. Fielding first is a problem also. As with Bournemouth, we are very flat as a team. Body language was down with fielders on their heels which almost gave the feel of a Sunday game. Some catches that would expect to be taken were not (me included) and we mis-fielded too often, probably our worst performance all year in the field. The top 6 all have to look at theselves for how they got out. Some poor shot selection, lack of foot movement and some angled bats were not the way to go on a slowish wicket. We are never going to win a game from 28-6. We have to find a formula to win a game batting 2nd!!
Sorry if you feel this is harsh, just my honest opinion.
