The Short One With Swingers
2007-07-19. Won by 9 wickets By Matt King
SJFCC vs KILLIGREW
Killigrew: All out for 15 from 10.1 overs, The Mighty Fishers: 16 for 1 from 4.3 overs.
Iím not in possession of the scorebook, so apologies if Iím out by a run or two here, but I donít think it will make a real difference in the scheme of things.
On a day when the ominous weather conditions meant weíd be lucky to get a match at all, we in fact got two in one evening.
On a wicket that (unusually for a Fishersí game) actually looked like it had been cared for and was meant for cricket, Killigrew decided to bat first. A decision probably driven by the issue of late arrivals as these were certainly ideal conditions in which to bowl.
Some days things go in your favour and some days they donít. For Fishers it was the former and (unfortunately for them) for Killigrew it was the latter.
Bob and Anil opened the attack for Fishers. The expected swing came and the batsmen found it hard to settle. Bob took a wicket with a ball that swung in/out* (* delete as applicable ñ it was hard to see from where I was at square leg) and conceded only three runs in his two overs. Not to be outdone, Anil upped the ante at the other end and took two wickets for the same amount of runs. One clean bowled, the other was from a truly spectacular catch by Coxy at point. The opener connected well with a delivery outside off stump and play a good cut shot which would have gone for four had Andrew not taken a great catch diving low and to his right. The bar had been set and it had been set pretty high.
Bungle, our resident swinger, liked the look of things. He fancied a bit of swinging action, but decided that it would be best if he got the game over with and then sorted that out afterwards. Bob got a wicket, Anil got two, so, and again not to be outdone, Bungle got threeÖ..although at the expense of additional, fourth, run.
Dave came on to bowl. Youíre probably ahead of me by now. So ñ Bob (1), Anil (2), Bungle (3) ñ how many wickets did Dave get? Well, you know how jockeys use their whips to get the best out of their horses, perhaps we need to encourage the umpire to call ëwideí more often to give Dave that extra pep. He was smashed all over the park and concede four runs without bringing a single new batsman to the crease. Ok, ok, so thatís totally unfair, but whoever said these reports had to be fair. Dave did bowl well, but there arenít many Fishersí matches in which heís the only person to bowl two overs and not get a wicket.
Si and King Senior bowled the last 13 balls between them. John went for one (a bit like in the last game where he nipped off for one and had a ënatural breakí between balls) and Si did ok, too. Actually Si did a bit better than ëokí. We can probably upgrade that rating to ëquite reasonableí for three wickets and four dot balls.
Apart from Siís there were probably several other maidens, but the only other one I can recall off the top of my head is Anilís first over. Thatís the problem with bowling outstanding well when everyone else bowls outstandingly well too, you just donít get to well, errrÖ..stand out. It was top bowling all round. Of the nine wickets that fell (they were one man short), eight were clean bowled and one caught.
Coxy and Magnet opened the batting for Fishers. We could see the concern in Chrisís eye as he padded up, ìHmm,î he was thinking, ì20 overs and 16 to get, Iíll need to up my usual strike rate by out 50% to stand a chance of getting anywhere near that kind of a targetî.
Coxy, having claimed ëChampagne Moment of the Dayí so early on in proceedings with his catch, had maybe peaked too soon and was out caught and bowled in the second over. Matt joined Chris at the crease and together they steered Fishers to victory ending up on no out nine and five respectively.
As the match was a bit shorter than anticipated we had an extra 10 overs a side game. Fishers got 101 after some gladiatorial tonkius maximumus by Si, Mal, Dave and Bungle. Killigrew reached c.69 with each Fisherman bowling an over. One highlight was the attacking field in Siís final over. Bungle, summoning all his field placing experience, set the field with five slips and two gullies, leaving just Bob at fine leg and our only specialist slip fielder, Big Malc, at mid-on with the remit to cover the whole pitch. With this field in place, naturally the batsman struck the first ball straight to Malcolm and from another Si had a shy at the stumps to set Malc off for a long chase to retrieve the miss. It all came good on the final ball, when Dave took a looped catch at second slip.
Both were good games and the sausage & chips at the Three Hammers afterwards went down well.
Man of the Match: Tough one, this. No-one batted and bowled in the same ëmatchí. Si edges it with 3 wickets in seven balls (but if weíre doing two MoMs for two matches then Bungle gets the other for 3 wickets in the first match and a bagful of quick runs in the second game).
Quote Of The Day: Chris (having received a telephone call some two and a half hours earlier, batted, done the scoring, fielded for ten overs, eaten sausage & chips and sat in the pub for an hour) ìIíve got to go back to work now. Someone called to say they could smell gas, might be an emergencyî.
