Wick 2s rolled by Battersea Duo

HWRCC 95 all out
Battersea 97-4
Battersea win by six wickets

Probably the most irritating game in Wick 2s Fullers’ history ended in a comprehensive victory for Battersea Ironsides. On a poor surface the team was bundled out for 95 before a one man demolition saw their total easily overhauled for the loss of four wickets.

Any explanation of the circumstances runs the risk of being treated as sour grapes by opposition googlers but context is necessary. The track was difficult to bat on and was even more two paced than usual. The ball alternated between keeping low and delivering steepling bounce at the Millennium Wood end. Only the oppo bat who decided to go large (oh wow did he go large) and smash us around the park had the right idea of how to play on it. To the naked eye it was both green in the middle and bare on a length leading to disconcerting changes of pace. If that wasn’t enough our innings was interrupted by a rain storm which contributed a spongey quality to proceedings. Sound like whingeing? Just context to explain how we were shot out.

Battersea have two excellent opening bowlers for this level of cricket. While they bowled straight and put it on the spot, Battersea’s skipper milked them until, like some African Zebu struggling to turn dried grass into milk, they were spent. Bowling twenty and nineteen overs each off the reel (assisted by the break for rain which gave them both time to recharge batteries) they used the conditions (especially the post rain strip) well enough to strangle the middle order and take 5 important wickets for almost no runs. The scorebook is a sea of maidens for Devitt who bowled straight all day and nipped it around.

More fool us. Once the two openers were retired having taken 7 or 8 wickets there wasn’t the same threat to follow. Latvian. Had we been able to keep out the openers it would have been possible to at least build a defendable total. But too many wickets had fallen and wag though the tail briefly did 95 would only be enough if Battersea’s batting was as thin as the Zebu of the previous paragraph.

We were slightly sloppy in reply which didn’t help. Any thought of applying pressure disappeared as the new ball was used to spray wides and no balls alike. When defending 95 you simply cannot give away 13 runs to wides and no balls. A great catch from Junaid aside there was not a great deal to celebrate.

So a poor performance all round. The Wick were definitely authors of their own misfortune here. Well, if they weren’t authors, they proofed the script, dotted the I’s and crossed the t’s. Battersea’s seasoned skipper confessed in the bar afterwards that without his two bowlers victories are not so easy to come by. One of them was a good bat too, possibly the best we have seen this year so far and up there with Fudge, Hibberd and the two lefties at Stoke D’Ab. This lack of depth made the defeat more galling. You had the feeling that without them, and certainly without Saqib who was so far above his team mates in batting skill, they would have been sunk.

That said it’s not Battersea’s fault they have star players dragging them along. Hats off to Devitt and Saqib (52* and five for) for top performances that dominated the Wick on the day. Hats on to us for playing some not so good cricket.