2023-07-16_Whalers

Match Data vs Whalers on 2023-07-16 at Barnes (Season 2023)

Winning streak lasts one game…

 

No one took any photos so here is a picture of a beer

Report by Dils

Our first game against the Whalers was back in 2001, pretty sure some of the team weren’t even born yet, I didn’t actually check for the fear of feeling old – I guess this is what it must feel like to be Fletch!

It’s been a while since we’ve beaten the Whalers, 2016 to be exact, but after winning last week we came into the game with momentum and hope. It started well with Raj winning the toss and choosing to bat first. He & Will opened the batting, classic right-hand left-hand combination, and they started really well and reached 37/0 after 4 overs. Will in particular batting brilliantly, defending the good balls and smashing the bad balls, his first 7 deliveries that he faced consisted of 4 dot balls, and 3 glorious 4s! Raj mistimed a lofted drive and was caught mid-off, and shortly afterwards cousin Munjot did exactly the same. Four runs later, William was bowled also, an excellent 37 runs off only 27 deliveries (Thanks Steve-o for scoring to actually get this stat accurately!). Salix first-timer Ismail came to the wicket, and showed natural flair and excellent hand-eye coordination, his second ball was pummeled to the boundary, but he was then bowled a few deliveries later. It was 74/4 after only 12 overs, this felt very Bazball, quick scoring but wickets falling at regular intervals. Teenwolf & Arsey then batted brilliantly to put on 79 run partnership, combination of clean hitting and quick singles (or twos if Arsey could run as fast as Teenwolf). Adam was finally bowled for 32. Amar joined Teenwolf and scored a run-a-ball 9. Amar was run out, after Teenwolf skied one into orbit, catch was dropped and as Amar went to run the second was sent back far too late, village cricket at its best! Teenwolf continued to hold the innings together, reaching his 50 after 58 deliveries, but then hit the turbo button with his next 40 runs coming off only 23 deliveries. Heading into the last over he was on 90, but bowled by an excellent yorker, 10 runs short of what would have been Andy’s second Salix hundred. Salix finished on 240, a very competitive score that the team felt we would have a good chance in defending.

Syed & Raj opened the bowling, and as per recent weeks started well, but without much reward. Good balls were played and missed, and anything slightly short or wide was punished. Despite mixing the bowling up, Whalers openers Dean & Al continued to bat well reaching 91/0 halfway through the 14th over, before Delilah was able to get the breakthrough and bowl Dean. The wicket didn’t slow the momentum, and it would be another 40 runs before we could get a second, when I was able to entice a lofted drive into the safe hands of Ismail. A run-out in the next over made it 145/3 in the 25th over, Whalers needed 96 more runs in 10 overs. It was looking unlikely that we were going to bowl them out, but could we slow the run-rate and defend the score? The answer was unfortunately no, despite every effort, they ran hard, converting ones into twos, and two into threes in addition to finding the boundary with regularity it meant the Whalers scored the winning runs in the 34th over. A story of our season, close but no cigar. It was a really good performance, and a great game of cricket. Our second win won’t be too far away if we continue to play like this.

As always, a pleasure to play against the Whalers and look forward to seeing you next season.