Sunday 2s vs St James
Author: James Warner
Match Report |
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WE ARE NOT LOSERS! WE ARE THE PUTNEY SUNDAY 2’S!! So with Chris away in the land of leprechauns & Guinness stand in skipper Rich wasted absolutely no time and immediately lost the toss. So in the brilliant sunshine out in “bandit country” we were bowling. Bailey #the difference and myself taking the new ball and for the first few overs we had every reason to be confident. Bailey had their two openers out for minor scores thanks to safe hands from Rich and Ed with a catch a piece made the “gentlemen” of St James looked like they could be making a putneyesque type score. They were however foxing us obviously as they then had their best two batsmen at the crease and that’s where they would remain for the best part of their innings. With the opening bowling pair tiring and starting to lose a bit of focus the two batsmen started slashing at deliveries and although there were some edges, there was also some fine hitting with a lot of futile chasing the ball to the boundary over a lightning quick outfield. In his wisdom Rich made the bowling changes at both ends and although Ed and Faisel bowled well, boundaries were still the order of the day. After much toiling in the field the wicket finally came. I’m not sure if it was Faisels energetic superfluous appealing, Pauls chatter, or a lack of concentration, the batsmen lovingly referred to as “my mate” was out for 49 caught at cover by Rich “Safe Hands” Wilson(There couldn’t be a nicer bloke to fall one short of a milestone innings. Ahem). After stopping to complain to Paul about another appeal even though he was given out I intervened and gave him a gentle nudge on the shoulder just to remind him which direction the changing rooms where as he had obviously lost his way. This obviously enraged my super competitive new BFF quite a lot and after a quiet word from the second most competitive man on the pitch, the umpire normal service was resumed. Faisel then took his second wicket and we had reason to lift our heads. His partner in crime however was unperturbed and carried on smashing boundaries seemingly at will.Bringing the new batsmen to the crease raised our spirits slightly and gave us the belief we could take more wickets. Rich brought the opening pair for bowlers back on after Rob “Funky” Millar had had his turn at watching the ball sail to the boundary on several occasions. With good pressure from Bailey from one end I finally took a wicket. Paul, deputising in Boners absence took his second catch of the day behind the stumps to my surprise (Not Pauls catch, just thought I wasn’t going to get a wicket!). Putney were back in the spirit! The following over I had the new batsmen caught at point by Kush and the very next ball the new batsmen was trapped in front LBW and I was on a hat-trick! (At this point I should mention the effort put in by Paul to catch the ball after said delivery in the belief he was taking a catch. Sorry mate). Not knowing what to do I bowled my stock ball and didn’t take a wicket. At this point the long standing batsmen was still at the crease and had decided to become even more aggressive. He came charging down the pitch at me hit one straight back at me after a couple of bounces and with a quick under arm throw he was out of his ground due to a raised bat. Even though the umpire was shaking his head and saying not out in a show of true sportsmanship he started walking having made 129. This brought a first gamer kid out and after an over of reduced pace bowling their innings was declared at 221/7 with the bowling card having racked up more numbers than a rock bands tour bus. Bailey took 2/52, Faisel a respectable 2/31, Ed 0/38, Rob 0/31 and myself 3/52. Going into tea then we were obviously a little disappointed but were looking at the positives. Two catches for Paul behind the stumps in his debut as a wicket keeper (The Ian Healy masterclass obviously helped eh?), two catches for Rich and no dropped catches. Only one misfield I can remember (IT WAS ROB OFF MY BOWLING AND IT WENT FOR 4!!) but I’d hate to name names and point the finger. The general consensus was as it was a timed game we would just try and bat out the overs and not do anything silly as we would require something like 7 an over. Kush and Rob opened the innings and looked solid enough. It would appear Kush’s patience got the better of him and with a little too much bottom hand was out caught for 13 (Unlucky for some?). This brought Rich to the crease and he settled in to a rather unusual role for him as support cast as Rob, no doubt trying to atone for his misfield started batting with the precision of German engineering. All seemed well until Rich paddled one around the corner which was dropped at square leg and they took a run on the misfield. Rob, following his lead chipped one to the fielder to which was also dropped. I’m not sure what happened out there but they'd obviously had enough of batting with each other as for the third ball in a row a dolly catch was offered. This time it was taken and Rob was out for a very well batted 50 with some great stroke play (Well played Rob!). This brought Asheesh into the middle and he wasted absolutely no time introducing his top-spin forehand shot that Andy Murray would be proud of to start smacking the frankly average bowling attack to the boundary. Rich was still plugging along batting really well (If only Chris was there to see what a skippers innings looks like ;)) while Asheesh was eventually out for 21 trying to belt the cover off the ball. Rich then brought up his 50 (That’s a few this season isn’t it ?) and was out soon after for a delightful 56 for a disputable LBW. Cue the comedy. After St James introduced a bowler who can only be described as the worst bowler I have ever seen in my life dismissed last seasons batting trophy winner Paul Hogarth. After dead batting his first few double bouncer half trackers he was bowled. That’s right. Bowled. By a delivery that barely had enough velocity to make it to the other end of the pitch! Clearly he’s suffering from second season syndrome. Bowled by a pie out for 11! This left Shins and Connor to finish off game chasing about 11 an over. At this point most batsmen would be happy to see out the overs and just take the draw. Connor however had other ideas. Whilst being well supported by Tan (Who hit a delightful boundary through mid wicket I might add) he decided to start leathering everything he could with as much power as possible culminating in some very entertaining cricket including some big sixes. With a final flurry and a big six off of the last ball we were finishing the game with an exciting draw and having scored 214/5 leaving us only 8 runs short from an improbable victory with Connor on a swashbuckling 32 not out and tan stranded at the non strikers end on 9 not out. Overall a well fought draw giving us a lot of positives to take in to the next week. I wonder if we can fit Chris into the X!??? |
Date | Time | Team | Opposition | Location | Putney | Opposition | Result | Scores | Points | Toss |
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22/06/2014 | 14.00 | Sunday 2nd | St James | A | 214/4 | 221/6 | D | 0 |