Theale & Tilehurst Friendly 3rd XI vs Bracknell 2nd XI

11th July 2009

BACK

Report by Indy.

The day began with a trip to our fellow relegators of the 2008 season, Bracknell 2nds. With rain forecasted for the day, Bob won the toss and decided to bat (Much to the relief of the team). Openers Eddie and Matt made a steady start before Tucker dismissed Eddie. This brought in Hammad, who looked in confident mood having made some runs in the previous game. However, Matt was the more fluent, playing some good shots. In an attempt to hit another boundary, Matt hit one straight out the middle of the bat, only to be caught at mid-off by skipper Bray. In came 'H', fresh from his mid-week innings, playing some solid defence. The run rate was around the 3 an over mark until the 17th over, where the next 7 overs constituted only 7 runs (inclusive of 2 wides). With both Hammad and 'H' going in quick succession, the innings needed some stability. With Imran at 6, there could not have been a better player to give the innings stability. Just before Imran went out to bat, Bob told him that he owes him some runs, only for Imran to reply "Don't worry Bob, rely on me". This seemed like a good reply until he was bowled by Tucker. With the score being 85-5, it was down to Jon and Robbo to build a good partnership as well as maintaing a good run rate. Both players played some elegant shots and ran excellently between the wicket. Whilst watching Jon bat, Hammad mentions that he looks like someone when he's batting. After a little discussion, we came to the conclusion that he resembles Alex Moore. With Alex being injured, the scorers had little problem identifying who hit what shot. However, if Jon and Alex were to bat togehter, the scorers may have some difficulty in identifying who is who. In the background, Jon and Robbo continued to accumulate the runs, putting on a partnership of 40 before the former was caught off the bowling of Tubb. This brought in AJ, fresh from last week's knock, with the team excited to see another few lusty blows. However, in an attempt to sweep, the foot slid out and the bails removed. Bracknell were now into the tail (well you can't quite call it a tail - please refer to scorecard) and must have been thinking of quickly bringing the innings to a close. However, Indy with the support of Michael and Bob, were able to finish on a respectable score on a deteriorating pitch.

Mid interval tea arrived with nice delicassies and to much of the team's delight, Jelly Beans!!! Imran decided to put a few in his pocket, which seemed pretty suspicious given that we were due to bowl. Luckily, Indy reminded him that the Jelly Beans are only used for consumption and NOT for any other use. With the tea interval over, the team was rearing to go.

Robbo and Bob began proceedings with the old ball. Bob immediately took a wicket im his first over, taking Bacon's off stump. In Bob's second over, he bowled Windmill around the legs to a ball that swung back. Bob seemed to have rolled back the years with some great bowling (although he does this on a weekly basis). The line and length that both opening bowlers were bowling was consistent and completely dried up the runs. The run rate at one stage was 0.77, which seemed to sum up Bracknell's strategy. With little intent to go after the bowling, the run rate remained around 1 run per over until the 20th over. Whilst this run rate was going, Jon came up with "the score is getting RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)", which I thought was quite amusing. With rain forecast for the evening, bowling them out was a priority in order to gain the full 25 points. Bob decided to bring on Imran (the 'partnership breaker'), who replied with the wicket of Harmer caught sharply/low by Eddie at first slip. With Imran still owing Bob some runs, he is slowly re-paying Bob with the wickets he owes from last season. At least Bob could "rely on" Imran to take wickets. The second bowling change was made shortly after with AJ coming on from the college end. Both Imran and AJ were bowling tight lines but with wickets necessary for a win, Indy was brought into the attack. The change saw Indy take 2 wickets in a decent spell before Bob and Robbo returned to clean up the tail. However, with that tail was M. Thompson (opener) who batted well with 9 different batsmen until being the last dismissal to a great low catch by Jon off the bowling of Bob.

The match ended with us winning by 48 runs and gaining the full 25 points needed to continue pushing for promotion. On the whole, a great all-round performance by the team.