"Matty D Innings Inspires New Wick Groupies" - Ed
HWRCC 1st Xi V Old Pauline @ CollettsHWRCC 277 for 4 dec (42.5), old Pauline 173 ao (42)
HWRCC wins by 104 runs HWRCC M.Davies*, A. O’Mahoney+, A.Day, N.Ali, K.Raza, I.Rashid, N.Weerakoon, Zo Tughral, G.Tong, S.Shinde, Zam Tughral. Scorecard Given the new composition of the 1st team this year skipper Matty D felt that a bit of team bonding was in order, so we found ourselves meeting on the Friday eve to catch the premier of Fire in Babylon. West Indian cricket, West Indian music and footage of Aussies getting a pasting, this set against the back drop of the underdog struggle they faced at the time for serious recognition. It’s a must for the sports fan…. Matty had very kindly arranged the whole evening and covered the costs, he was hopeful of some good Karma in return and a bit more banter from the boys in the dressing room…. It seemed to do the trick on Saturday, spirits were high and given the fact we had won all 3 games so far this year we had huge confidence going into the fixture against a side we have failed to beat in the last 2 seasons. Winning draws sure, but victories are required if we want to be playing Surrey league cricket next year. Matty failed with the toss and we found ourselves put in on an absolute belter of a track, however always trickier to take full points if batting first. Slight reshuffle in the top order found skipper and the inform Noman opening up. Normy doesn’t like hanging about and seems to take the attack to the fielding side quicker and quicker each week. He was on 30 within the first 4 overs, no unorthodox hitting, just awesome textbook stroke play worth the match fee alone. In this flurry of boundaries it seemed that norm had forgotten how to run singles correctly however and found himself well short attempting a single even Usain Bolt would have struggled with. 40-1 after 4, not a bad start. Daisy joined Matty in the Middle and after a bit of consolidating the score began to tick along very nicely. Boundaries flowed and Alex had soon passed Matty D with some impressive swept and driven maximums. Daisy brought up his 50 at better than a run a ball and we had reached 130 for 1 off 28ish overs. Chairman Nicholls was obviously so shocked by this however he decided to give Day caught behind of his glove whilst attempting a reverse paddle, debateable decision, Day not impressed. Kam joined Matty and looked in better nick than previous weeks although was bowled attempting a fairly ugly heave across the line for 4. Imran was next in, at that point a couple of quick breakthroughs and we been looking at 220. D upped the ante however and unleashed some serious blows both down the ground and over midwicket. Having reached a glorious 100 of 106 balls, he then stepped it up once again; the left arm spinner was particular to his liking. One over saw the first 3 balls go for consecutive 6’s, seeing Viv Richards in the film the night before had obviously done its trick, that good karma had definitely found its way back to him. We ended on a magnificent 277 declaring in the 42nd over, allowing us to have 53 overs at them, more than enough surely… Tea- filled a hole, but limited variation and poor alternatives to the sandwiches gives it a 7. Remember the film was the shout after tea. Could us fast bowlers use the film and all those glorious scenes of the great West Indian attacks from the 70’s & 80’s as inspiration. Short answer, no. The track became flatter after tea and also lost a lot of its pace, Shri, Daisy and myself all had a crack but with no success. Not a hint of swing or seem and pace lacking from the track coupled with some confident stroke play saw the oppo reach 60 for 0 from 12. However, as well as a possessing the best fast bowling options in the league we do have the variation of our twin spin kings Raza and Tuggsy. Zammak had first go and after a few overs he did the trick. Holding one back a touch Zammak encouraged the bat to sky a sweep to midwicket where Zo held well to give his brother the breakthrough. A couple of overs later the other opener feathered one behind trying to cut, their captain and best bat then mistimed a drive which Zam held onto for a caught and bowled and we were making progress. The danger was always going to be whether we could bowl them out however, as defending on that track looked fairly straight forward. I decided to start laying in with a bit of sledging (not to Keith’s liking) and shall we say encouraged one of their set bats to have a go at hitting Zam out the park. He failed, caught at mid-off, and we had chipped our way into their lower order, Zam taking all top 6 bats in an impressive spell. Definitely showing signs of being somewhere near his best. Norm and I came on to wrap up the tail with around 10 overs to go taking two apiece, the oppo making roughly 170 in the process. 40 points out of 40 so far and with 2 promoted teams to come in the next two weeks, there's an opportunity to push on before what looks like a crucial West End Esher fixture. MOM-Matty D. The definition of a captain’s innings. I probably have never seen him play that well, I can’t remember him giving a single chance. A beautifully paced and constructed innings, moving from nudging it around early doors to some absolute devastating maximums against their whole attack later on. A Mention to Zam as well for providing that extra spark with the ball you need on tracks like that.
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