Venturers vs Hay Hill CC, Thursday August 21st

Venturers 99-4 Hay Hill 98

There was something about Hay Hill that suggested they had two or three really competent players and then some others. That proved to be more or less true, though the others were not incompetent. The opening bowlers were accurate but not penetrative, and Richard and Fluffy pottered along, scoring in ones and twos, for the first half of our innings. There were no boundaries, though, so the scoring rate was a bit on the low side by the time Richard was eventually out. Before that happened he had been unexpectedly struck on the chin, which seemed not to bother him at all. Ian did not accelerate the scoring much either, but Kevin did, a bit, after Fluffy succumbed. There were a couple of runouts as we tried to push the rate up, and Omar played one or two violent shots, but what we really needed was Ahmad's placement and he hardly got in. We batted slightly too well for our own good really: Alastair didn't get an innings at all. Hay Hill proved not to lack for competent bowlers, nor for people with Zimbabwean accents appealing for LBW from mid-off, and their fielding was mostly rather good. So objectively 99 was not such a bad score, but we felt we should have made more.

Simon cleaned up one opener immediately, via a bottom edge onto the stumps, and Kevin neatly removed the middle stump of the newcomer, but this brought together the noisy Zimbabwean and a clearly good batsman who was an obvious danger. Kevin struck the latter on the toe and he was given out LBW, but the Zimbabwean protested to the umpire that his partner had hit it and eventually the umpire allowed himself to be talked into changing his decision. After this piece of sharp practice our view of our opponents changed rather, and no further quarter was given, at least, not intentionally. A rather large unintentional quarter was given by Matt, who remembered that Gregory strongly prefers one end, but failed to remember which end. The result was an over full of full tosses, costing about sixteen, and the run rate was back where it needed to be. The Zimbabwean apparently failed to beat Alastair's direct hit but stood his ground and the umpire gave him the benefit of the doubt. Chris made it irrelevant by bowling him next ball: he stayed crouched in the crease for a long time, as if mortally offended, though he had no reason to be. But the dangerous batsman was still there and Matt was no more economical bowling to him down the hill than Gregory had been. We ran one of his partners out, and Chris might have had more wickets, but when he reached 50 he walked off, apparently to give someone else a go. This should be retired out, but that was not the intention.

We made good use of the respite. Seventeen runs were wanted from six overs. Alastair was given a rare bowl down the hill, picked up a wicket immediately and should have had another one but for Gregory and Omar colliding. Gregory, given the end he wanted, produced a wicket maiden (a neat stumping by Richard, keeping in the absence of both Roger and Alex). Alastair again should have had a wicket in his next over: Ahmad dropped the catch but managed a run-out instead, and repeated the trick, without the drop, in Gregory's next over. A third tight over from Alastair, with the Zimbabwean both umpiring and calling for runs, left Hay Hill wanting six from the last over with numbers 10 and 11 together, and the danger man waiting to return. Ahmad passed the outside edge twice but then mistakenly produced a straight one, giving the only player remotely capable of getting them three balls to get the six runs. Off the first ball, though, he took a reluctant single. His partner got off strike next ball, leaving him four to win off the last ball. With the field spread, he connected but found Ian on the cover boundary, and could manage only two as Ian ran the ball back in, rather than risk overthrows in the dark.

Fixtures & Results 2008