"Someone in the cordon shouted 'see'" - Ed
Southern Kenley & Railway vs 2xiSouthern Kenley & Railway 92 (Abeyrante 7/15)
HWRCC 94/3 (Mackie 44*)
HWRCC WON BY 7 WICKETS - Scoreboard Saturday saw the WICK 2xi travel to recently relegated Southern Kenley & Railway desperate to get back in the saddle and ride as quickly as they could away from the dramatic fall they suffered at Woodmansterne the week before. Southern Kenley & Railway (SKR for the rest of the email) is a nice ground. A cricket haven, surrounded by a concrete jungle! Having never been to the West Indies before the skipper quickly claimed that he thought it had the look of a colonial West Indian ground and that he could imagine Jamaican club cricket being played in such surroundings. The outfield was parched and the strip bright yellow. With short boundaries and warm conditions this had runs written all over it! As a captain who bats this is a nightmare scenario. Your heart is shouting BAT, BAT you fool! Fill your boots! Yet your head (the part of your body that can still picture last week’s fall) gently coughs and says, sorry mate, but you’re going to have to bowl. The lucky coin carried on its merry way and as a head came down, I looked down at my feet, shook hands and said “we will bowl”. The WICK 2s are a good side; in fact they are the best bowling side in the league and pride themselves on high standards in the field. 2011 stats show that only Woodmansterne currently take their wickets at a lower run rate (thanks to us - last week) and NO team in the league thus far has managed to score more than 150 against us. Even on such a batting strip we would back ourselves to bowl well, hold our chances and restrict the opposition. This is exactly what we did. Leader of our attack, Unsworth, was this week partnered with the new ball by Fahad Tanveer ("Fast Cars" for the rest of the email) but could only manage 2 overs before he was struck down with a shoulder injury. Webster took over at the clubhouse end and was immediately into a good rhythm. Webbo & Fast Cars ("Sleazy Wine Bars" for the rest of the email) caused the SKR openers some real difficulties however they were both showing some fight and aptitude that from the scorecards on Play Cricket had looked as though it had been missing from SKR’s first 4 games. This resistance would not last for long however and Sleazy Wine Bars ("Never been behind bars" for the rest of the email) made the breakthrough, clean bowling Griffin (not Peter) for 13. Webster had the other opener caught by Vish at backward point and no.3, behind by Mackie, and we were well on top. After a hostile spell from Never been behind bars, Vish entered the fray and bowled what turned out to be a career best spell. Bowling in tandem with Webster who finished with 2 for 33, both bowlers mixed up their deliveries perfectly having great success with slower balls and cutters on what, remember, was still a belting deck. Vish in particular bowled with great variety, but kept the ball straight claiming two wickets clean bowled and 3 more LBW. Backed up superbly in the field by some very good ground fielding, SKR never got away and although they stuck around for nearly 40 overs (again testament to the pitch) the WICK had once again done a great job with the ball. Tea was taken on the top floor of the two tiered clubhouse with access to a long balcony and great views over the playing area. Tea itself was adequate with plenty to go round, but an over reliance on shop bought sausage rolls and warmed through samosas meant that only a 6 could be awarded. Although the Rosie was very good! No budget bags being used here! I also have a problem with very long tea tables and the proximity of ours to the opposition's, but that’s just me. As I mentioned at the start of this report we set ourselves very high standards in the field and quite rightly so as they are more often than not delivered but even the call that followed the first ball of Vish’s spell on Saturday might have been expecting a little too much. “Come on Vish, line and length” was the cry from the slip cordon as Vish sent down a loosener short and wide of off stump that went harmlessly through to the keeper. Apparently now we don’t allow our bowlers the luxury of a ball to get loose. But then again the cordon, in its wisdom, might have known something we didn’t as the next ball careered into the no. 4’s off stump and the offending slip fielder shrugged his shoulders and said “see”. I mention our fielding as we perform very much as a team, in what is the only facet of cricket that is actually anywhere near a team game. The 2s are a close knit bunch and with the core of the side playing under the same skipper for 5 years now we know what makes each other tick. I think we like the security of relying on each other and backing each other up, celebrating other’s triumphs and sharing our disappointment. You can do this in the field but when it comes to batting it is very much each man for him-self and personal standards are all that matters. A chase of 92 on that pitch with our team was never going to be a problem and despite the loss of Naveendra early on, contributions from Cole, Jackson & Crowther along with a classy 44* from Mackie meant we breezed home in just 20 overs. Mackie is a great example of someone who has very high personal standards and like any true cricketer (especially a batsman) is obsessed with stats. He is determined to score runs on any given occasion and detests a Saturday afternoon given up where he doesn’t trouble the scorer. He would have looked at the score we required to chase on Saturday and immediately thought that there was enough time for him to improve his average with an unbeaten score. This is how every batsman should be. When it comes to batting, cricket is a team game, played by individuals and it is those individuals and their match winning performances that get you promoted. So the 2nd xi moves into a big month of cricket mid table and still well in the promotion push. I have been telling anybody who can be bothered to listen that this is going to be a very strange season as I think there are 7 of the 10 teams in our league who on their day could beat anyone and get promoted. Ironically if we had beaten Woodmansterne last weekend we would be top of the pile. As it is we are 4th and have only beaten the bottom three sides that are yet to register a win between them. It’s a funny old game. MOM – Vishva Abeyrante for an excellent spell of 11-4-15-7 WICK
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