Theale & Tilehurst friendly XI vs BBC Caversham friendly XI

28th August 2011

Sunday catch up: One, Two, Three Strikes - One Spike!

There once was a skipper named Ash, who won the toss and decided to bat. E-I-E-I-O. He had 11 batsmen and had to make a choice, on who to bat where and who to send out when. He started with Lakiesh and John to open up shop. E-I-E-I-O With a single here and an extra there we made a decent enough start that wasn’t half bad considering neither hit a…… four. But then disaster struck and Lakiesh was bowled. The ball kept low and his forward defence failed, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Luckily Bobby had on his pads. He walked out to the crease, and unfortunately had to walk back. With a quack, quack here and a quack, quack there he strode off with a….. duck!! Then Jonny was out in the next over and a collapse was on, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!

It wasn’t a great start but you have to laugh when you can, you never know what will happen next. Michael and Andy built a steady partnership with some good running between the wickets, pushing the ball into the gaps but that didn’t last too long as Andy was next to go. Barry and Michael then built up a good partnership as Barry was able to play the supporting role. Michael kept the scoreboard turning over and hit 2 of the 3 boundaries of the innings at that stage when he was out for a valuable 32. Ash joined Barry at the crease and they carried on the rescue effort. When Barry was dismissed I came out to join Ash at the crease. We continued on from the last time we batted together during club day 2010. There were plenty of quick singles and the odd run out chance as we attempted to put the BBC on the back foot. I hit my second 6 of the weekend before I was out. This allowed Big T (Tim K) to show me how 6’s are really hit as he took a liking to the BBC bowling. Ash soon reached 50 playing the classic skipper’s role, he was Mahendra Singh Dhoni’esque. But then he was also stumped as he got carried away and miles out of his crease (hehehe – lol gag of the century). Scot then provided some assistance to Tim before he was out.
The big mystery with Trevor still remains, I don’t think he has still showed up for Sunday’s game and I had a look for him on Monday. In his absence Brenton, who having gained clearance from Spike over his membership/game eligibility was invited by Ash and agreed to fill in the vacant number 11 spot. He contributed 2 runs and was the other not out batsman with Tim who played a much needed cameo to boost us to our final score of 204.

Second Innings

Applause now – that was just the first half of our act. What came next was plain for all to see and in case you missed it you can scroll down and see but have some patience and I’ll talk you through it. Scot Stroud and Brenton (Trevor in disguise) opened the bowling with Scot keeping the line and length tidy it was Brenton who looked particularly deadly although he was a bid wayward in among the testing deliveries. He didn’t pick up any wickets despite being close on a few occasions beating the outside edge. There were a few memorable dives over the ball by the slips not mentioning any names mind you, but we did have a good laugh and joke at the individuals concerned so safe to say I can spare them a public red glow to the face. Ok let’s say his name anyway – we love you really Lakiesh!! With Brenton wearing from the lack of match fitness since his last outing was club day Ash decided it would be wise to give him a spell at the 5 over mark and introduce Michael to the attack.

It was a good enough choice in the end even though he didn’t take any immediate wickets but he did help build some pressure. Scot was able to capitalise off of this as he put in a rather quite shout for lbw which was probative none the less as it was given, this just goes to show you don’t have to yell at the top of your voice, if it’s out the umpire will give it. Scot then came off after putting in a solid spell of bowling. I was then introduced to the attack for the first time this season, at long last I have found a skipper who trusts me to bowl, and rather strangely he has never actually seen me bowl before perhaps this was the key to his faith in me. I suppose I can tell you now how great I was at off spinning the ball and mesmerising the batsman and all but there’s no point as you probably won’t believe me!

All of a sudden Michael was inspired to take his first wicket, no doubt a result of the immense pressure from my bowling at the other end. He trapped the opener lbw, and it wasn’t long before he got rid of the number 3 with the help of a good catch from Ash. All of a sudden the two batsmen who looked in decent knick were removed and this exposed the rest of the line-up. I was then helped by a well held catch at mid-off by Scot and an equally good catch at slip from Bobby who had to keep his concentration as the ball was deflected off the glove of Andy who was keeping wicket. Having got a few wickets, I was glad to make way for Lakiesh to replace me. At the other end Michael had also took a break after a job well done, thus allowing Spike to come on and make a major impact.

Lakiesh marked his debut with the ball with very helpful advice from young Bobby who pointed out the basics of bowling straight; the very next ball produced a wicket. Spike had bowled a few overs without any luck, firstly trying the classic leg spin which didn’t quite grip on the day and he decided to change tact. His second over was merely to loosen up for his third over. As his pace quickened and line and length sharpened he was ready to make an impact late in the day.

Strike 1: Spike runs into bowl, nice and steady, everything on target, his foot lands behind the line (a very important lesson to all you up and coming spike wanna bees). But fundamentally what was good was the length was very full. When the batsman shuffled across his stumps there was no doubt the ball wasn’t going over the top. With leg stump still visible and the batsman being struck on his pad in front of middle stump there was no doubt in the umpires mind he was out. Given LBW

Strike 2: Very similar in manner. Another plumb lbw just to show it was no fluke.

Strike 3: this was rather a gift, a rather young batsman came out, he was quickly surrounded by men all around the bat, a good bit of shrewd captaincy to no doubt intimidate the boy.

Shame on you Ash, but luckily Spike didn’t need any help as he ripped up his off stump to take a wonderful hat trick!!!!!!
Barry then came on to seal the victory within his first 4 balls, another gem of a wicket, a ball which dragged the batsman out of his crease in order to allow Andy to take a stumping to ensure a comfortable victory.

Well done T and T and Ash on his 3rd win as captain a 100% record only matched by who else but me of course!

Last words: Be champions - Arsalan signing out!!

THEALE AND TILEHURST CC SCORECARD
Home Team		Theale and Tilehurst						Away Team		BBC Caversham
Date of Match		28th August 2011						Played at		Theale

		Team							Result	Team
Result		Theale and Tulehurst							beat	BBC Caversham

1st Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	J Morris	bowled						G Smith		1	0	9
2	L Verma	bowled						M Randall		0	0	6
3	B Rees	bowled						M Randall		0	0	0
4	M Holder	ct			G Smoth			M Green		2	0	32
5	A Shotter	bowled						G Smith		0	0	5
6	B Stroud	bowled						M Green		0	0	10
7	A Misra	st			H Ballard			M Randall		6	0	61
8	A Ahmed	ct						D Watkins		2	1	22
9	T Kasozimusoke	not out								2	2	33
10	S Stroud	lbw						G Smith		0	0	3
11	B Cooke	not out								0	0	2
							Byes	6
							Leg Byes	2
							Wides	9
							No Balls	4
									Extras			21

							Wickets	9	Total			204

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	D Watkins		8	0	52	1
2	G Smith		10	2	27	3
3	Unsure		8	0	25	0
4	M Green		6	1	28	2
5	M Randall		13	2	77	3
6
7
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1						0
2						0
3						0
4						0
5						0
6						0
7						0
8						0
9						0
10




2nd Innings of		BBC Caversham
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	M Treder	lbw						S Stroud				18
2	M Randall	bowled						M Holder				30
3	M Green	ct			A Misra			M Holder				25
4	G Smith	ct			S Stroud			A Ahmed				6
5	T Castle	ct			B Rees			A Ahmed				3
6	J Garson	bowled						L Verma				8
7	J Champion	lbw						J Morris				6
8	T Massey	st			A Shotter			B Stroud				7
9	D Watkins	lbw						J Morris				0
10	J Smith	bowled						J Morris				0
11	H Ballard	not out										1
							Byes	8
							Leg Byes	0
							Wides	6
							No Balls	3
									Extras			17

							Wickets	10	Total			121

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	S Stroud		7	0	32	1
2	B Cooke		5	0	24	0
3	M Holder		6	0	21	2
4	A Ahmed		5	0	9	2
5	J Morris		3	0	14	3
6	L Verma		2	1	2	1
7	B Stroud		0.4	0	5	1
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1						0
2						0
3						0
4						0
5						0
6						0
7						0
8						0
9						0
10						0