1xi vs Kempton CC (h) - League Cup. Match Report by AJ

HWRCC 1xi vs Kempton 1xi
Kempton won toss
Wick 211, Matty D 50, Hibby 30
Kempton 212-8

The Wick 1xi's record in the League Cup has been abysmal since we entered the Fuller’s League, and it didn’t get any better on Saturday against Kempton. The oppo won the toss and stuck us in. After a minute’s silence had been observed in memory of the late John Tilley, we went about posting a competitive target. To say that we got off to a poor start would be close to stating the bleeding obvious, as AJ was cleaned up second ball by their erratic opener, Kam slapped a half tracker to point in the second over, and Chris fell soon after. 20-3 after five overs, with two of the top five bagging early season ducks was hardly the start Joey was after.

But Matty D carried on from where he left off last week, batting quite brilliantly for the second week running. Solid in defence, brutal in attack, Matty peppered the shorter boundary towards the pavilion with cuts and flicks off the legs. One drive through the covers in particular stands out in the memory bank. As the former skip went about rebuilding the innings, he found an unusual accomplice in Hibby, who showed uncharacteristic restraint and responsibility to build an excellent partnership. Hibby’s knock was also laced with some of his trademark cover drives and signature flicks through midwicket, timing the ball as only he can.

Hibby (30) eventually fell to their leggie, who in between serving up full tosses and half trackers, turned the ball square. Indeed, it was one such delivery that caught Hibby’s edge, with their keeper taking an excellent catch behind the stumps. Matty D carried on to reach his 50, before slapping a truly rank full toss to the square leg fielder on the boundary. If Matty got the slightest bit of middle on the ball, it was six, but alas, the splice of the bat did for him. He can be consoled by the fact that for the second week running, he got himself out (run out last week chasing victory), with not one of their bowlers looking like getting him out. I think I’m right in saying that he didn’t play and miss once. This bodes well for the rest of the summer. [Mmmm yes I am guessing he will be delighted - Ed]

Imran came in and batted intelligently and aggressively in equal measure, punishing good and loose balls, while also throwing his hat into the ring for the slow race on club day. Dutchy smashed a few before getting a ridiculous half tracker that barely got above ankle height. Joey then came in and batted as Joey does, running hard, and hitting a mighty long ball. One six over midwicket (ok, it was cow corner) came right out of the screws. Shirish also contributed, Fordy didn’t, taking us to 211 all out in the 45th over. Having seen us roll teams for under 150 more times than I can care to remember last season, I thought that we had more than enough to have made the game safe. This is why I don’t bet.

Decent tea, though DBW has continued his bizarre early season form of sticking chorizo on a half bap. What the eff? Has he holidayed in Mexico? Does he have something against pork and ham? Does he have swine flu? Probably all of the above.

Their openers came out with real intent and purpose, swinging from the hip, with most of it coming off. Their opening bowler came out to open the batting too, as he had a night shift to get to, but he managed to hit both Fordy and Joey off their lengths, depositing Fordy into the pavilion, and smashing Joey back over his head for six. We didn’t panic, and with the score at 60, we took our first wicket, when their leftie clipped Kam straight to Hibby, who took a decent catch at square leg. He doesn’t drop those (often). Chris grabbed a couple of quick wickets too, horrible half trackers being slapped straight to grateful Wick fielders. Imran’s catch was a gem. Kam took four wickets in next to no time, and before we knew it, they were folding like a deck of cards at 97-8.

From there, how we failed to close the game out is still a bit of a mystery. Basically, their number four produced the innings of his life, and probably the best innings most of us have ever seen at the Wick, making 92 not out to win them the game. We could have had him first ball when he edged an extremely tough chance off Chris to Kam at slip, but such are the margins, shit happens, it was tough, and it would have been a once a season catch. Let’s not use up all our luck in May. That apart, it was chanceless.

Their number ten (he wasn’t a number ten, and since their opening bowler opened the batting, perhaps they reversed the order??? possibly not…) batted sensibly, putting away bad balls, running well, and supporting their number 4. Fordy was hit for an array of sixes over midwicket and long on, on a pitch that basically did nothing for the seamers once the shine went from the new ball.

Having had a couple of days to think about how we failed to win, I would summarise it as thus; we should have made more runs (top order take note), we did well to come back so well in the field after their opening stand, we were complacent at 97-8, we didn’t bowl well enough to take the final wickets (we didn’t create a chance), we could have fielded better and smarter when the pressure was on (lots of overthrows, poor backing up), BUT, their lad batted brilliantly, and it was good to get a high pressure game in so early in the season. In the equivalent fixture against Godalming, we gave away 40 extras, dropped 9 catches, and batted like a U10 eleven. We then won our first six league games.

Fingers crossed for better things this Saturday.

[Here's a picture of AJ in case anyone had forgotten what he looks like]