Theale & Tilehurst friendly XI vs Aldermaston friendly XI

26th June 2011

Finally a glorious summers’ day meant we could wake up in the morning without thinking whether or not we would have a game today. Most of us met at Theale only to realise that there were only two drivers and 10 players requiring transport. Panic ensued, only for someone in a small blue car to save the day when he came zooming down the Englefield road, taking a sharp left towards the pavilion and completing a hand-brake turn to finish parallel parked to a stunned Rog. Once the smoke from the mystery driver’s wheels settled he lowered his window and revealed himself to be Trevor. With enough transport now we all made our way to Aldermaston. I suppose a special thank you is in order for Kevin, Rog and the Stig aka Trevor for being kind enough to take everyone to the game.

We arrived at Aldermaston with plenty of time until the start of the game, so as per usual everyone took a walk to the middle to be greeted by what appeared to be an excellent track and fast outfield, whilst some of us were talking about our respective games and performances the day before the rest of us were listening to Arsalan tell us how he was going to smash about 250 and hit so many sixes that the opposition would be forced to forfeit as they would run out of spare balls, and although he didn’t quite manage it today, knowing Arsalan that innings probably isn’t that far off!

So we proceeded to the next stage, this is when half the team gets changes and the other half can’t be bothered! Raj walked out with opposition skipper, won the toss and elected to bat, Hammad and Arsalan opened up and both didn’t last long, with Arsalan the first to go being bowled by a decent delivery from opposition skipper Palfrey, Hammad went in the next over hitting one straight into hands of the cover fielder, at 6 for 2 we weren’t looking that great as the two better lookers in the team had just been removed, what was even more concerning is that the wicket wasn’t as good as it looked and nor was the outfield. What Mikey and Barry lacked in terms of looks they made up for with their play as both took time to rebuild the innings, although Barry went cheaply he played an important part in making sure we didn’t lose another quick wicket.

This bought Harry to the crease and the partnership between Harry and Micheal turned out to be the most important one of the match. Harry played in his typical aggressive manner, although there was one incident that still has me confused, Harry backed away just as the bowler (Mills) had started his run-up, he complained that the long off fielder was too straight, now I’m not sure whether I was correct but I wanted to have a go at someone because I hadn’t scored any runs, so I took this opportunity and told Harry he has no right to say a fielder is too straight and he can be as straight as he likes.  Still Harry got his way and what was more bizarre was that Harry actually repositioned the opposition fielder himself, he then hit the very next ball straight at the same fielder he had just positioned there, only for the fielder to do the right thing and refuse the catch. Harry was timing the ball particularly well and hit one excellent six over deep midwicket. On a spongy wicket and slow outfield Mikey did the right thing in taking good quick singles and getting Harry on strike, after a couple of more lusty blows Harry was slightly unlucky when he timed a full toss straight into deep square legs hands, maybe next time he can ask deep square leg to field a little wider? This bought an end to a decent innings from Harry and it’s a shame that he may be leaving us next year to play for the Finland national team.

After the departure of Harry, Tim and Michael made sure there was no sudden collapse, Mikey in particular playing some excellent shots, his straight drives were very eye catching, he wasn’t helped by a slow outfield and on another ground it would be fair to say he could have easily finished with 20 odd more runs. Micheal was dismissed for an excellent 61, succumbing to the heat more than anything else.

Tim was carrying on his good Sunday form when Raj was dismissed hitting a full toss straight up, judging by his reaction I think it’s fair to say that he thought it was a no-ball.  James came in and played an excellent cameo, when James was bowled by a clear no ball which I duly called, the opposition captain must have drawn inspiration from Raj’s reaction and reacted similarly, after I ‘‘very politely’’ asked him how he could tell from the deep long on boundary he decided to calm down a bit.

Although nobody did we had Micheal to thank for getting us to a very good score, on that pitch and outfield, we had tea confident of defending the 181 we eventually made.

The second innings was a little less eventful than the first, Raj opened up with himself and Scott with both bowling some good lines. Mills was the first to go when Raj trapped him plumb LBW for the second time. Palfrey dug in and started building a partnership with Masters, before Scott had Masters caught behind. Trevor and James were bowling well in tandem with James providing the pace and Trevor providing the excellent line and length. Palfrey went to Trevor aided by an excellent catch from Arsalan at mid-on.

At this point Arsalan decided he was going to provide a running commentary on everything that happened on the field, so Raj decided to send him to the deep point boundary, being the determined person that he is, he wasn’t deterred by this and carried on his commentating. It probably also worth noting that when the team gathered at the fall of a wicket, for some reason Arsalan took the opportunity to beat people up, with myself and James bearing the brunt of his aggression.

When James sent the impressive looking Thomas back we were fairly confident of winning the game. Raj returned into the attack and dismissed a couple of batsmen, the game looked a forgone conclusion, until Dobson arrived to the crease and threatened to take the game to the end, then in what can only be described as a hugely inspirational piece of captaincy, Raj looked around the field for a match winner and in honesty he kept on looking at the same person. With Dobson looking very good Raj took James out of the attack and tossed the ball to Hammad. Hammad started with an excellent maiden which included a variety of ripping leg-breaks, googlys and off-spiners to name a few. Even Tim behind the stumps was struggling, in his second over Hammad stopped playing with the batsmen and had Dobson caught behind on the fifth ball, he then sportingly bowled a simple delivery outside off in order to allow young Harry to take the final wicket.

This wrapped up a decent days cricket against a sporting team who like last year played in the right spirit.

Highlights: Mike Holder  – excellent chanceless 61! J Bozarth hitting his first senior 6 - and it was a long, long off boundary and Harry for repositioning the opposition field whilst batting!

Match Report by Hammad Ali!! (In case you haven’t worked it out yet)