Merra' leave Wick feelin Yella'

1s Match Report by Matty D

Cricket is a simple game. 11 v 11, white pyjamas, 2 shiny red balls and you win, lose or draw. Actually you can tie as well. Oh, and you can have various kinds of draw. There's bonus points to think about too. And if if it rains, it all changes. Actually, cricket is a complicated game.

Less comedy this week - more serious analysis.

Merrow chose to bat on a seemingly flat track. Having said that, in all honesty, almost nothing happened in the first 20 overs, other than Wick kept probing. If the ball was on the stumps it was blocked, if it wasn't it was either left or missed. At 40-0 from 20 overs we were sitting fairly comfortably and despite not taking a wicket we were definitely in control. Ewen and Whinney again proving miserly, but on this occasion failing to get the breakthrough.

Tong got involved and eventually found some success and crucially some of his famous swing. As the runs picked up a little, so did the wickets and the fielders awoke from their slumber. Having said that, the fielding was generally excellent and certainly helped build the pressure on the Merrow bats.

As the score progressed beyond 100, Ali had a burst without success, Zam toiled away without too much turn (and a few loose deliveries) and Kammy joined in with some impressive slow loopies. In honesty, the Merrow bats did well to build a platform that allowed their agricultural lower order to punish some poor bowling at a crucial time - most unlike the Wick attack. As Bumble would say, there didn't seem to be a plan B and we resorted to feeding the batsman's strengths. A score of 160 suddenly became 208 off the full 52 overs. Clearly a total that was defendable on a slightly awkward track.

Teas - 8/10. The softest bread you'll find this side of Waitrose and a even some warm sausage rolls. Tongey filled his boots.

The Wick response was hit hard by an aggressive opening salvo from a rejuvenated oppo skipper. Bowling absolute hoops down the hill and aided by some muggy conditions, he induced a swing and a miss from Ali. Over zealous appealage followed and words were exchanged. Davies then suffered the consequences the next over as surely the umpire's thoughts were swayed by another over zealous appeal, to a delivery that rips back sharply and whilst possibly going over in height, was definately missing leg stump (as I'd nicked it into my right thigh and the ball was heading towards square leg). Great ball, but not out.

*I'd like to point out that as correspondent I'm allowed to give my excuses here*

Rashid soon followed with another good delivery lopping to gully. Losing 2 wickets early set the Wick back on a track that suited the home attack who had experience of using it to their advantage. Ali and Raza, both watchful, impressively saw off the bulk of the opening salvo, creating a platform from which others could take the game back to the bowlers. Ali fell to another beauty from the oppo skip, and Mackie joined Raza in what would be the crucial partnership, taking the Wick up towards 100 at only 3 down. Left and right partnerships are crucial.

The critical point came when Raza snicked one to slip off the slow left armer and then Mackie foolishly gave his wicket away, skying one to mid off. The Wick, forced to chase 209 off 43 overs, were well behind the rate and were forced to reassess a winning draw target of 172.

Losing wickets regularly did for the Wick in the end, although with an impressive Whinney at the crease things were still in control. Ewen and High bludgeoned a few hits, but with Whinney being caught on the square leg boundary, the Wick fell just shy of the winning draw total. A 6 off the last ball would have done it, but it wasn't to be.

Only 3 bats did not get double figures, but the highest score of the game was only 33. The track was a difficult one, always liable to do something unusual, or at least enough to induce the edge.

A points tally of 9 to Merrow and 7 to HWRCC probably reflects fairly on a game that was far more interesting than the T20 final the following day, but infinitely less exciting. It's probably a good thing that we had this set back early in the season so that we didn't get carried away with our 3 dominant victories thus far. We've been in this situation before and hopefully this year we can get over that line at the end of it. As High noted in the car on the way home, he'd rather play in a game like that than one where we roll the oppo and then get there easily, as has been the case thus far. Looking at the league results so far, it appears that it could be tighter than previous seasons, with draws the order of the day.

If it was easy it wouldn't mean as much...