Theale & Tilehurst 3rd XI vs Fleet 3rd XI

2nd July 2011

The Frightening Report (3^rd XI match report)

Before the game even began there were a few twists and turns. Imran had car troubles and was forced to pull out. This left Charlie Cooke to come in and replace the vice skipper. But then we almost lost one of our opening bowlers on the drive to the game, as Indy was extremely distressed at the sight of a spider (not sure exactly which species it was, but roughly speaking, it had about 8 legs and was around 3 cm’s long) aka the scary type. We survived this initial scare as I showed it the window and Indy’s breathing went back to a normal pace and his voice lowered in pitch and lifted in confidence. Perhaps this was a sign of things to come.

We managed to win the toss and elected to bat. It was business as usual from the get go, as we got off to a flyer and immediately put the opposition on the back foot. Unfortunately Charlie was first to go but this didn’t have an immediate effect as Rog then came out to bat and between us we piled on a partnership of 129 runs in a very short space of time. I was first to reach 50 and Rog was not far behind as he ended up top scoring with 63. We then let the opposition back into the game by not building on a good start as wickets began to fall at an alarming rate. There were some unfortunate dismissals where the ball kept low as in the case of Lakiesh and some ghastly shots like the one I played as I set to test the opposition’s catching one too many times and Ayggz who tested the umpires integrity with the lbw decisions, the scorecard reflects the result of both tests! No meaningful contribution was made until Indy and Rob built a determined partnership of 56 which was largely responsible for getting us to a respectable score of 217. They both played well and deserve the credit for a job well done in rescuing an otherwise lacklustre display. Indy played some strong shots down the ground and Rob picked off the leg spin of Mehdi in trademark fashion through his favoured area between cover and extra cover. This brought back a smile to everyone’s face as we went in for tea.   

We set about defending our modest total with optimism and a healthy dose of belief in our abilities as we were and still remain the top team in the table. However it was not the greatest start as their openers managed to score quite freely even though there were plenty of half chances which didn’t go to hand. There were no early breakthroughs and it proved to be a very solid start by Fleet. James Bozarth then came on and proved to be a handful again as he managed to take two wickets in quick succession. He bowled well and allowed us an opening to work back into the game. Rog capitalised off this and worked away with a lengthy bowling display which brought about a good catch at gully from Lakiesh. Amongst his 4 wickets he also managed to dismiss the opener who had piled on the bulk of their runs but it would prove to be a little too late. Even though Naz had found his rhythm and was making life hard for the lower order batsmen towards the end of the game as he also picked up a late wicket. They managed to scrape home with 12 balls left in the game and were the deserved winners.

We still managed to pick up 13 points and maintain a healthy lead at the top of the table. Perhaps this was the eye opener we needed to help us refocus on what? We set out to achieve.

It’s time to sign off and no, nobody had a broken toe or anything like that but if we must blame someone… I know it would be easy to pin it on one man, but in fairness to Aggz lets not do that, it’s not the 3^rd XI way and it’s not his fault. Can’t wait for the return fixture and in the meantime Ascot can bear the brunt of the aftermath.

Report by Arsalan