| |
2nd XI v Ardvreck
by Our Fair Weather Correspodent - Sonny Skies
Once again the double-headed coin did its job and Cap Heck elected to bat. Ardvreck would have to swelter in the field whilst the Belhaven batsmen could keep cool in the shade of the trees overhanging the pavilion.
Our batsmen must have had something in their soup at lunch! What performances. What stroke play. What running. (What? Are you sure? Ed)
Ali and Cap Heck opened the account with a blistering array of leg-side shots that quickly put 19 on the board. But Heck was not getting across to the off-side deliveries and he snicked a catch to slip to end his spell, having faced 4 deliveries to get his 6 runs.
George swaggered to his crease, took guard, gave it back and proceeded to slog the ball all over the park. He survived 20 balls and carefully placed all but four in various parts of the field to notch up a creditable 38.
Both he and Ali were quick between the wickets and it was marvellous (Steady on! Ed) to hear confident calling, speedy running and no mix-ups in the middle of the pitch! However, Ali, revelling in the fact that he was timing the ball (18.63m/s av. Speed of bowling! Ed) swung across the line (What? Again? Don’t these batsmen learn anything? Ed) and was caught by mid wicket. The unlucky 13 he scored obviously producing its slice of misery!
Ardvreck seemed quite happy, but they did not know how devastating our Colossus can be when fired up. Like reptiles basking in the sun before a rampage, the sun had warmed Geordie up nicely. When he gets it right that ball stays hit and one can see the fielders’ morale decrease boundary by boundary. Geordie had, then, reverted to his normal batting style - the careful approach of the previous match not exciting enough for him! Live life on the edge - that’s Geordie’s batting philosophy. Slog, swipe, smash - boundary followed boundary and a satisfying six was smitten. In the end he, too, succumbed to Miss Time (the seductress of silly shots for batsmen) and was caught and bowled. A brief, but exciting innings of 28 moved the score to 79 for 4.
The redoubtable Henry ‘Lefty’ bounced to his crease full of confidence after a gruelling net session the previous day, and proceeded to swirl on the spot trying to chase the ball round to leg. How he doesn’t fall over with dizziness still remains a mystery!. Occasionally he will connect and today he connected 7 times out of the ten balls he faced before being bowled. He was a good supporting player for George and they made a partnership of 32.
George, enjoying yahooing (not the search engine this time! Ed) once too often , skide, skyed, skyped hit a high one, the bowler caught it and gave a relieved sigh of satisfaction on seeing the Mighty Yahooer trudge back to the pavilion. So ended the scourge of bowlers.
After this exciting period of play, during which there were only 11 dot balls (out of 53, excluding wides and no balls) the Slump began. No disrepect to Jake, Charlie and Lachlan who faced 9 balls between them - Charlie scoring 7 from seven of them! Jake and Lachlan, obviously preferring the pavilion’s shade, took one look at the bowling and thought of the refreshing tea not far away - best be at the front of the queue anyway!
Archie and William dug in (hopefully on a length, eh? Ed) and although William was reluctant to respond whole-heartedly to Archie’s calls for runs, he stuck at it and did not lose his wicket. Archie was one of the few batsmen who deliberately made off side strokes - even to balls on the leg side!
The 20 overs having been bowled, 145 runs been scored and players wilting on the field, tea was called. (Called what? Ed)
The first 6 overs from Geordie and Henry were the best they had bowled all season (Are you sure of this or has the sun got to you too? Ed) and only 10 runs were made. All right, I admit 4 of those were given away in wides and no balls, but at least Henry got their No. 2 caught.
The delivery that took the batsman by surprise is one of Henry’s specialties: the straight-no-spin-double-bounce extravaganza. It is this type of delivery that batsmen hate, and Ardvreck’s No. 2 duly tried to smash it for six, mistimed it and gave Geordie a straightforward catch at mid on.
After 6 overs the score was 11 for 1 and Belhaven’s collective tail was up. Time for Ali and George to join in the wicket taking. Although they took a wicket apiece, the run rate increased, as did the number of wides. Oooops! But at least it was their opener that Ali got and Ardvreck’s runs began to dry up, further compromised with a good running out of their other high scoring batsman.
With 4 overs remaining and 78 runs scored it was a tall order for the Ardvreck batsmen, but they had been stalwart and you never know in 2nd XI cricket - anything can happen. And it did today!
Archie and Edward were asked to bowl the final 4 overs - and very tidily they bowled them as well. Edward had a maiden in his first over and Archie only allowed 8 runs to be scored off his two.
Thus the final over arrived. Edward began his lolloping run-up and the ball was hit for 4. Gasps of anguish from the fielders. Edward tried again and clean bowled the batsman. His next delivery did exactly the same (but presumably to a different batsman? Ed) and the crowd went wild! This meant Edward was on a hat-trick and the fielders moved in for the kill. Sadly it was not to be, but on his final ball good ol’ Edward struck again and ended the match on a high - 3 wickets for 4 runs. Quite superb.
A great afternoon’s entertainment and one hopefully repeated in the 2nds’ last game against Strathallan. There is a match against Mowden Hall but they have requested it be an U12 XI, so the Leavers won’t be able to take part - sorry lads!
Click on any photo below to see it in glorious full size with comment. Priceless! If it doesn't display refresh the page by tapping F5 key.
Back to Top
|
David Peek, 01/06/2009 |
|
| |
