24-07-2010 - Home - TVL - Finch vs Eversley

Finch Fasties Flatten Eversley

So, you’re an opposition captain coming to the Leas ground, the best n the league. You know Finch have improved since you last played them, as they are the only team to beat the league leaders this season. You walk out to the wicket, lightly conversing with your counterpart, mind totally focused on the toss – win the toss, win the toss, win the toss. Look at the wicket – damn, it’s a road, wish we had this to bat on at our place.....

What do you call – “Tails never Fails ?” “a Head or you’re Dead?” – Cap’n Bob throws the coin, left-handed, of course. Yes – won it ! Act calm, like it didn’t really matter, casually say you think you’ll have a bat first – excellent ! 10 points in the bag, maybe even 25 if they have to chase a big one (we hammered them all round the ground at our place) and throw away wickets trying for that elusive 20 points. We could end their season right here. Walk back with a more relaxed stride, shout to your regular openers – “pad up boys, we’re having a little bat......”. Listen for the Finch graons as they hear they're in the field.

The Finch openers look young, can’t be that good, even though they did restrict BA – maybe their batters got careless. First up, a wiry young guy with a long run-up - think they called him Liam. Blimey, that first one was wide, must have been 6 foot down the leg side, keeper struggled to get anywhere near. Wow, that next one was quick though, not sure our boy really saw it, still, leg bye is ok. Damn, bowled him, didn't get his bat down.

Get to the crease, we’ll try to steady the ship, play a few dots, wait for the bad ball. The guy with the curly hair, Dylan they call him,  is swinging it in, hang on, he swung one away, then another, then seamed it in – everything on the stumps, this is hard , I'm barely getting a bat on it and I thought I was in nick. 12 overs gone, only 12 on the board and 6 of those are extras - not great but not disastrous./ Ah, at last, one down the leg- side from Dylan, about time. No problem, glance it away, one maybe even four, got loads from that shot this season  – hang on !Keeper’s caught it, how did he do that ?

Back to the pavilion – keep it going boys, these two young guys only have 7 each, their change bowlers will be easier, and here they come. Blimey, the one with the easy run up and face furniture pushes it through, that’s our third wicket down, an easy one to the keeper and only 20 on the board. I thought that Hopkins bloke was a batter, not a bowler. Let’s look to work on the tall slim one with the glasses, Rosebowl  is it ? Nothing of him, looks like he'll be mostly harmless on this track, especially if he tries to dig it in. Blimey, a bouncer, that’s way over his head and fast, too. No wide ? Well he did have a waft at it – ohnooooo, another gone, then another, 34 for 5, this is disastrous. 54 for six, then 60 for 7. Do these guys never bowl anything hittable ? And they are still pounding in and the fielders are getting hands on everything. Ah, that’s better,  18 off the over. See boys, you just stand in the crease hit down the line, into the hedge, then into the sightscreen. Not sure why I batted him at 9 - he'll be up the order next week, for sure. He's making it looks a lot easier now, why didn’t we do this earlier ? Keep going boys, that’s the hundred  - 2 points in the bag, now go for the 125. It’s all about partnerships now, small targets, we could make 150, maybe 175, get them under pressure in front of that noisy crowd on the boundary, especially that really big bloke with the female entourage, he'll give them some stick if we get on top. Our bowling’s not mega today but we’ll put some tight fields in.... Ah – the two openers are back on, that’s not good, I was hoping Bobby would go for spin - isn't that how it usually works ? 9 down now, send in the big fella to block it for the last 12 overs, maybe pick up another 20 or 30. Great, the statue at first slip has dropped the edge from Liam, a life ! Damn, Dylan has cleaned him up though the gate, he never gets out like that.... All out for 115, lowest of the season and only 2 points !

Fantastic tea, loved those choccy krispy things and the scones with cream and strawbs, nice sarnies, too. All those non-players swarming around like vultures is the sign of a top tea.

Right boys, gather round, we can still win this, pressure is on them, they batted rubbish at our place, never in it, no batting depth, so an early wicket or two could see them in the same place we were and we can still get 25 out of this. Big man from the bottom end, wheels from the top end, down the slope, that should do it. Cap’n Bob doesn’t like pace, he’ll edge it, seen it loads of times before and we’ll catch it. That young wicket keeper looks like he might be a bit nervous, so pitch it up to him, leave that tempting gap in the covers..... Damn, Bobby keeps gliding it through the slips,  that’s 3 fours through there, maybe should put a third man there ? Nah, keep him up, let’s attack.

Can't seem to get the fielders in the right place, must be that the bowler can't bowl to the field we set. Now  Bob keeps pushing it through point and ambling 2 and that keeper is hitting it harder and harder straight and through mid on, he must be getting close to t0 50. Ouch – 110 for nought – don’t think that plan worked, maybe should have changed the bowling and taken out one of the 3 slips. But our back up seamer isn’t as good and I couldn’t trust our offie on this track with the way these boys are batting - never seen Bob hit it harder. Seems to be all over a bit quick, though, only 20 overs. Ok, last over, 6 to win, let’s put on the “surrender spinner”. Who wants it - what, you haven't bowled for 10 years ? About time you did then, here you go. We’ll let Bob finish it off and have an early bar. There’s the 4, only 2 to win – oops, he’s edged it ! Caught! Another wicket, another point.  Pressure on the new bat, fellas, come on, no singles now, we can still win this, ha ha. Oh, half-tracker, hit through square leg for 4. Why is that tall old guy in their team whooping so loudly ? Apparently he’s won some money by betting their number 3 would hit the winning runs with some black- haired bloke in a yellow hoodie. Obvious really, I’d have had some of that if I’d known.

Shake hands with the oppo – best we’ve faced this year, catching in the slips dodgy, but what a bowling line-up, didn’t even need that spinner who took 9 wickets in two games and that’s the first time Bob hasn’t bowled against us for 10 years or more. Their 4 seamers took all 10, 5 bowled and one LB. That Rosebowl guy caught his first one of the season, too, shows that nothing went right for us today. That keeper - he must be the one has been scoring loads lately, batted well for his 72 not out. Thought we’d get more than 2 points here, though. This has to be our worst result ever on a flat Leas track - still don’t really know how they did us over like that.

Good fielding outfit, too, great team spirit, all having a laugh, bigging each other up, no moaning anywhere. We could do with a bit more of that. Good job they lost their first 4 of the season otherwise they would be out of our sight by now, but we’re still a win ahead of them and the league’s still open if BA blow up, hopefully they drop points today – well, well, they have done ! Season still on for all the top 5 !

 

 (Author's note - no offence meant, not even to Simmo and Wardy and no one got hurt writng this report )

Statistics

Eversley won the toss and elected to bat
Result	Win
Umpires	P Metcalf & E Versely
Scorers	An Eversley scoresman we could do with - let's make him an offer
Score
Finchampstead CC Scored 0 for 0 in 0
Eversley Scored 115 for 10 in 42

Player Performance - Batsmen

Player	How out	Runs	Catch	Stump
Bob Osler	Caught	0	0	0
Matt Lay	Not Out	72	2	0
Liam Matthews	Not Out	0	0	0
Malcom Blogg	Not Out	4	0	0
Alex Jones	Not Out	0	0	0
Ian Rose	Not Out	0	1	0
Kanki Sehmi	Not Out	0	0	0
Kevin Ramskir	Not Out	0	0	0
Dylan Augustus	Not Out	0	1	0
Tom Hopkins	Not Out	0	0	0

Player Performance - Bowlers

Player	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Liam Matthews	10	1	21	2
Ian Rose	11	2	23	3
Dylan Augustus	14	5	24	3
Tom Hopkins	7	1	42	2