Telling Tails: Sunday vs Wilcot
What a game. Well done to all those who played in our first Sunday match of the season which was away to Wilcot - we all end our weekend having had a fun day of cricket in the sun. But there will no doubt be some questions floating around in everyone's minds. What if we took that single that was on offer? What if we chased that ball a little faster? What if we hadn't dropped 9 catches in a row? Is Malcolm still wearing his box? (You had to be there for that one).
On a gloriously sunny day at Wilcot, the home team batted first and, despite some very testing bowling from Al and Jeremy, their openers got off to a solid start. We had our chances in the field, plenty of them, but couldn't get that breakthrough we needed with spill after spill (the fines count was high for this one).
Things were looking bleak as Wilcot moved to 150 without loss. But then, we finally broke through thanks to Syam's accurate bowling. He grabbed another with wickets in back to back overs. And we had Wilcot restricted to 180 off their 35 overs. On a slow wicket, this felt chaseable.
Our turn to bat. We lost some early wickets to LBWs. Then we saw the arrival of Syam to the crease - and he wasn't in the mood to hang around. He hit a quickfire 50 off 20-something balls (retired), taking us right into contention. Things were looking good as Warwick ‘The Wall’ Hall played his trademark forward strides down the crease, chipping us closer and closer. Warwick fell but Captain Chris picked up the mantle and it looked like he would take us home. But our partnerships couldn't quite stick; Will holed out, Jezza took some pressure off by hitting a couple of boundaries but then sent one up to be snaffled. Chris's wicket also fell and that brought Malcolm and Sean to the crease with 6 runs needed off the final over. Sadly, despite some excellent running and a fight to the end, Wilcot's bowling was exceptionally tight and we fell just 3 runs short.
A loss, a lot of dropped catches (we'll work on that) but lots of promise shown for the season ahead.
Next match is versus Chaddleworth at home.
See you there.
[Will Renwick in the writer’s chair for this week… cheers Will!]
