BACKReport by Mr Ed
This was my fifth game of the season, and in the previous four T&T has always fielded first. It was very noble of the Broadmoor team therefore to allow us to bat first on this occasion. Once our innings was finished and Broadmoor had completed their fielding drill, they were content to go home, we were under the impression that there was a game to finish. The outcome of this match is in the hands of the League so perhaps it is best if I make no further comment.
Last year in this competition we reached the final beating a number of teams who were ranked higher in the Berkshire League than ourselves. T&T are a pretty sharp outfit when it comes to this format of cricket and we show an intensity and intelligence in our game that we do not always show on a Saturday. Mind you it’s a pretty simple game; win the toss, bat first, give it a slap, bowl in the dark, win the game, beers, curry.
Batting first, James Codd and Martyn Pyke approach their task in typical Sri Lankan style. Unusually, we made a pretty pedestrian start and it wasn’t until the fourth ball of the innings before James deciding he had shown enough of his defensive set up, slapped a big straight six over the bowlers head. The innings then carried on in this forthright manner until its close, as we were able to take advantage of some indifferent fielding and the competitions fielding restrictions that require that two fielders have to field outside the parish.
James was out in the fifth over for twenty-five, but we already had 48 runs on the board. I then joined Martyn at the wicket in a partnership that realized 76 runs in only 6 eight ball overs. Martyn took advantage of using my bat (again!!) to prove once more it’s got a mighty big middle. That bat has scored a lot of runs, it just a shame I have to run all mine. Quite simply Martyn played a phenomenal innings hitting 14 boundaries in his eighty-two, but think on Martyn, what could you achieve if you showed a little more application and turned up for nets? I got some praise for given Martyn the strike when he was blasting the ball to all parts of the field and if it looked like that –fine, but to be honest when I first got in the middle I was trying to cane the son of a bitch but couldn’t. Later on I worked on a theory that my best chance of avoiding a cardiac arrest was to allow Martyn to hit boundaries.
We both eventually were bowled, but aggressive running from the incoming batsman (with the exception of Andy Johnson who ran himself out comically) kept up the momentum of the innings. At the end of our innings Mo Iqbal hit a quick fifteen and the innings closed with our score on 179 for the loss of six wickets.
It had begun to drizzle late in our innings, and before Broadmoor were due to start their reply the rain got heavier. However the rain passed and on another good wicket I think we could have easily resumed the game.