Inkpen [A] Match Report
The ball is the key.
Our trip to Inkpen was a learning curve and in honesty not the result anyone wanted or expected. With half of our 10-member team utterly gazebo'd after the Ramsbury Charity Ball (the ball is the key), we were on the backfoot before we even begun despite having 9 regular Sunday bowlers on the field. Our trusty skipper won the toss, and chose to unleash our bowling attack. On the face of it, this was absolutely the right choice, the pitch was moist, but drying and we fancied our chances hitting runs off the pitch later and taking wickets whilst it was wet.
Trusty Al and Jeremy opened proceedings... fortunately neither victims of the sauce from the evening before, and it showed. Early wickets fell and we took a couple within the first few overs. Within the spell, I managed to blast through a pounding head to hurl myself toward the ball to stop a definite boundary... sadly it was also a catching opportunity that I rebounded skyward only for it to disappear out of my sight thanks to my brand new Ramsbury sun hat (available in the store should you want one). Sadly the new purchase blocked my view in all upward directions (the ball is key) and I couldn't spot it for a rebound capture. I won't mention that the batsman I dropped went on to make over 60 and a huge chunk of Inkpen's runs. To mention such a thing would just be embarassing.
With the next ball, Jamie took a beauty in the deep, a full on body-to-chest snatch which he held onto to put us in a commanding starting position.
After a series of weeks on the sidelines, it was a joy to see Sean return to the field and would have been even better had Charlie managed to grab another lofted ball out of the air. Not to be as we went into the drinks break with Inkpen's batsman beginning to put on some serious runs. At 15 overs they were just short of 100 and only 2 down.
I'm not sure what was in Charlie's drinks-break refreshment but it proved effective as he took a caught-balled, followed by another the next ball to set himself up for a hat-trick (something which Charlie has fulfilled in recent years). On this occasion however, we had to settle for a dot ball, although Charlie continued to take wickets and somehow dodged a 5-fer, finishing with an incredible 4-17 off 6 overs. Incredible spell.
At the other end, back-to-back games for Sam proved vital to keeping runs down, but sadly not wicket-rewarding in a fabulous spell of 6 overs, 0 for just 19 filled with jaffas, peaches and screamers throughout.
As a unit who were 50% hungover, we held strong and held them down in the post-drinks session. Another week with positive fielding placements got us two run-outs which included a great direct hit from Sean to take out their big-hitting skipper. We held them to 165-8 after 30 overs. Easy.
4 out of our top 5 batters where still under the influence (have I mentioned the hangovers yet?), and we found ourselves struggling. Jamie, who was 149 not out so far this season (off just 3 innings) hit some splendid shots, but sadly all to fielders and Warwick grabbed a couple of boundaries before an unfortunate end. As myself and Chris took to the wicket at 3 down we realised the issue... the drying pitch now had very uneven bounce and those Sunday pies came flying in towards us. The good news, the Inkpen wicket slopes away making lbw decisions hard to give as the ball (which is key) frequently drifted away, the bad news is Warwick still had blurry vision and regrettably raised the finger with a touch too much haste whilst umpiring.
That being said, we were miles off the pace, their bowlers knew their wicket and pitched the ball up to trap us all at the crease and the lack of pace from the bowling made runs very difficult to come by. Al ran about 20 runs, although only 2 where legal... still not sure how he wasn't run out. Our batting performance was so bad, that Inkpen's 17 wides top scored for us by some margin. 89 all out.
As a unit, we generally bowl quicker than most of the teams we face on a Sunday and in our post match pub analysis we decided we need to freshen things up at nets to practise what we play against. Expect some dobbers this Thursday so we can practise scoring in difficult conditions.
We look ahead to Beehive at home this weekend. We've played them once this season already (match report available above on that one), and it was a last-over-decider.
Malcolm on teas too! Winning!
Let's go again. Get your name down on Spond, be part of it!