Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Sulhamstead and Ufton Friendly XI

12th July 2009

BACK

It’s my Bat and I’ll Play How I want To

Considering the heavy overnight rain that we were playing at all was something of a surprise.  The pitch was understandably damp and at the toss both captains were clearly unsure what to do if they won.  I would probably have batted first but lost the toss; we were put in so in that sense it made no difference.

Wiggy and James opened the batting and after a relatively quiet start things came to life in the seventh over.  Wiggy opened his shoulders and only the telegraph wires saved the cars on the A4 from being in serious danger; there was an audible gasp from the Sulhamstead players.  Their relief three balls later when Wiggy chipped a catch to mid wicket was palpable.

I was umpiring for much of the next phase of the game during which it’s fair to say that the operating of the scoreboard left much to be desired.  It was something of a surprise when those on the boundary started clapping James’ fifty; I hadn’t appreciated that he was particularly close but if one believed the scoreboard fifty out of 947-1 was pretty slow going.

Most of the Sulhamstead bowlers struggled with their length, erring too short on a slow pitch.  This enabled James and Jonathon to find the boundary on a regular basis and keep the scoring rate high.  However, just as James closed in on what would have been a well deserved hundred he mis-timed a pull shot and was caught and bowled by Graham.  His 96 coming off 80 balls.

An excellent follow up partnership between Jonathon and Charlie put on 56 for the fourth wicket.  A further fifty partnership followed with Harry as Jonathon upped the scoring rate and he went to his excellent hundred with a six pulled massively over mid wicket; he went soon after with his 109 coming off 96 balls.  Apparently this was Jonathon’s first hundred and it is likely to be the first of many.

The T&T innings closed on 277-5 off 40 overs which represented a very good batting effort.

In reply it initially looked like Sulhamstead would have a real go at getting the runs.  Palmer and Abbott both came out and played with real aggression and struck the ball hard.  However, it felt like there would be chances and after a couple went down Jonathon took a couple at point off Dicko to dismiss both of them.

The game then changed dramatically, any casual observer not sure of the format would have assumed that from this point onwards Sulhamstead had opted to play for the draw.  Doole played well but at the other end Booth’s tactics were less than clear if the intention was to win the game.

Inevitably the game started to drift with the result seemingly having been accepted by both sides.  Jordan came back and dismissed Booth with an excellent yorker and the final quarter of the game was summed up when the 38^th over of the innings was a maiden.  In the end T&T ran out comfortable winners.