Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs BBC Caversham 19th June 2005

Report by Fingers

On the second hot day of the weekend Derek Watkins won the toss for BBC Caversham, he didn’t say we’ll bat but just said to James “I think you can guess what we’re going to do”. So back in to the field it was for more hard work.

Ian was making his debut behind the stumps in senior cricket and as is often the case on a Sunday it was Osman and Bob opening the bowling. Os got the first breakthrough when Burton chipped a simple catch to point where Matt took the catch. Randall was batting very securely with the occasional lusty blow; he’s obviously very attached to his bat though as he persisted with it throughout his entire innings despite the fact that it is clearly cracked badly and every shot sounded like it had been badly timed and he should be shaking his hands.

As anticipated the spell in the field was proving hard work, the pitch was offering the bowlers very little encouragement and the outfield giving the batsman full value for their shots. None of the early T&T bowlers would have claimed to have been at their best and too many loose balls were offered which the batsman gratefully accepted. The pick of the bowlers was Nehal (apologies if the spelling is wrong) who put in a challenge to Lemmy for unluckiest bowler award, he went past the outside edge on several occasions and when one catch was offered at deep cover it was shelled.

The Beeb ended their innings on 202-6 which could have been more and had been boosted by a generous contribution by sundries. The conversation at tea was along the lines that the total was perfectly gettable but at the same time tempered by the fact that you don’t see over 200 chased successfully very often on a Sunday afternoon.

When the T&T innings subsided to 28-4 after 12 overs thoughts of victory had probably evaporated for many of the T&T players. Nehal and Osman started to consolidate the innings and then started to play more expansively as they got more comfortable at the crease. Nehal showed good shots all round the wicket and went to his first fifty for the club with a six over long on. However, fatigue was getting the better of him and he finally went for a very well made 75.

Osman continued well supported by Spike and Ian as all of a sudden ideas of victory were being re-awakened. Osman finally made it to his first fifty for the club and hopefully it will be the first of many but fatigue was also setting in for him. Having been running hard and making both Spike and Ian, neither of whom are slouches between the stumps, look slow by the end of the innings it was Trevor making Osman look slow as he started to cramp up in both legs.

In the end we fell just short of our target but having been 28-4 this was a great recovery and a draw was probably the fairest result on the day.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Theale and Tilehurst						Away Team		BBC Caversham
Date of Match		19th June 2005						Played at		Theale

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result									Drawn

1st Innings of		BBC Caversham												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	Burton	ct			M Dixon			O Mahmood				4	1
2	Randall	run out										70	2
3	Ferreira	ct			J Codd			T Greaves				15	3
4	Williams	ct			M Mason			T Greaves				18	4
5	Lavers	lbw						B Cooper				24	5
6	Simpson	bowled						R Williams				5	6
7	Watkins	not out										10	7
8	Courtney	not out										12	8
9	Champion	DNB											9
10	Townsend	DNB											10
11	Sintra	DNB											11
							Byes	16					12
							Leg Byes	12					13
							Wides	16					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			44	16
													17
							Wickets	6	Total			202	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	O Mahmood		8	0	15	1							21
2	R Williams		10	2	36	1							22
3	T Greaves		9	0	43	2							23
4	M Mason		4	0	28	0							24
5	B Cooper		7	0	34	1							25
6	N Bhatt		6	0	20	0							26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	17					17							32
2	70					53							33
3	120					50							34
4	163					43							35
5	167					4							36
6	175					8							37
7													38
8													39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45
2nd Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	J Codd	bowled						Ferreira		2	0	11	1
2	B Cooper	ct			Burton			Ferreira		0	0	0	2
3	N Bhatt	ct			Lavers			Williams		11	2	75	3
4	E Choules	ct			Randall			Lavers		0	0	0	4
5	M Mason	ct			Courtney			Lavers		1	0	5	5
6	O Mahmood	not out								5	0	56	6
7	J Morris	run out								1	0	14	7
8	I Reeves	ct			Champion			Williams		2	0	12	8
9	M Dixon	bowled						Williams		1	0	4	9
10	T Greaves	not out								0	0	0	10
11	R Williams	DNB											11
							Byes	3					12
							Leg Byes	2					13
							Wides	7					14
							No Balls	2					15
									Extras			14	16
													17
							Wickets	8	Total			191	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	Lavers		10	1	45	2							21
2	Ferreira		9	5	15	2							22
3	Randall		11	0	55	0							23
4	Williams		11	1	72	3							24
5													25
6													26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	4	2				4							32
2	19	1				15							33
3	19	4				0							34
4	28	5				9							35
5	119	3				91							36
6	139	7				20							37
7	179	8				40							38
8	187	9				8							39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45