Saturday 2s vs Bec Old Boys
Author: ?
Match Report |
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Putney 'A' won the toss and elected to bat first on a hard, dry sandpaper-like pitch which scuffed the surface of the ball making the bowlers work extra hard to maintain any shine on the ball. Vidler and Wibbs laid a good foundation to the innings taking the score to 71 in 13 overs before Vidler was out LBW having made 24. A handful of wickets fell quickly (83-2, 104-3, 109-4 and 114-5) which put a lot of pressure back onto the middle order line-up of Kaplan (18), Hussain (33), Racchitt (29) and McVarish (20). All batted well to steer Putney to an innings total of 210-9 as we only had 10 players available on the day. The general feeling in the clubhouse was that we were about 25 to 30 runs short of a defendable total, and a good bowling and fielding display was needed to ensure we were in with a chance of victory. Bec OB started well, and after the first few overs were well above the required run rate. We needed to take some wickets and soon if we were to put pressure back on the opposition. Danish got things going with a very well taken driven full-toss catch off his own bowling (29-1). The next man in was soon trudging back to the boundary benches after edging to Wibbs behind the stumps off Danish (29-2). The 3rd batsmen looped a top edge sweep shot down towards deep leg slip position to Wibbs (49-3). Our confidence was beginning to grow, but a stand of 34 followed which evened the game up at 83-4. A similar stand brought the 5th wicket (112-5) and the 6th went with only 1 additional run added (113-6). It was easy to start thinking that this was all but over, but the required run rate was still just above 5 runs an over, and with a fielder short and a fast outfield, easily achievable. The 7th wicket fell on 124, with Kaplan fielding a well struck drive down the track off his own bowling, and then instinctively flinging the ball out the back of his hand at the non-strikers end stumps, to run the batsmen out by a good meter or so. Brilliant or lucky - we gave Shaun the benefit of the doubt! Hussain, who had taken over as keeper from Wibbs after 15 overs held onto a good juggling catch off Ed McVarish's bowling to get the 8th wicket. Bec OB's tail put up some resistance, with the last 3 wickets falling at 150, 152 and 183. McVarish's tight bowling spell ended after he pulled up injured after 8 overs, which was a pity as a five-fer looked to be on. (They shoot injured horses don't they? Anyone know what they do with spin bowlers?). This was an altogether much better fielding performance, with only 1 catch being spilt, but we are still conceding too many extras - 38 out of a total of 183 is around 20%, and with the wides and no balls tallied up, bowled 17 additional deliveries. A lasting and rather troubling memory : Racchitt as "Coco the Clown" (as named by Rohit). |
Date | Time | Team | Opposition | Location | Putney | Opposition | Result | Scores | Points | Toss |
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01/07/2006 | Saturday 2nd | Bec Old Boys | A | 210/10 | 183/10 | W | 20 |