Early Dropped Catches Unsalvagable By Good Late Catches

Scorecard

After being put in, Els and Sappy strolled out to bat on a slightly damp wicket. Keen to pick up where he left off, Els continued his weekly personal challenge of trying to clear the longest boundary at the club and did so early on with an impressive hook over cow. He added a few flowing cuts and with Sappy looking solid at the other end, we were flying! That is until Sappy decided to go back to a full ball and was clean bowled.

This bought Greeno to the crease to join Els and they could not have played more contrasting innings’. Els continued to play some beautiful shots all-round the ground whilst at the other end, Greeno played so many Chinese cuts we begun to wonder if he was actually playing them on purpose! Though it wasn’t his most fluent innings ever, he stuck with Els and ground out some runs to take us to 80-2 in 20 overs.

Well set, Sprulesy came in and looked to bat himself into nick. After taking a good 20 balls to get off the mark, he suddenly flicked a switch and started booming some boundaries including a sweetly timed six over mid-wicket. At the other end, Elliot passed 50 and looked as if he would bat all day. Sadly, he slapped a wide one straight out to deep cover and we were 139-4. Sprulesy chipped one straight down the ground and suddenly, Manno and I were in with us in a little bit of danger.

At a time when we both should have reconsolidated and taken us to 200+, I set the tone for my terrible performance with a pathetic slap of a wide half tracker straight down the ground to mid-off. Then inexplicably, Manno, who had just watched me depart decided to track the bowler and again chipped the ball to mid-off.

With Albert still struggling to get his pads on quick enough, Walker, a former Renegade, seized his opportunity and scampered out to bat before anyone else could. Possibly buoyed by the fact he was batting with his childhood hero and another former renegade T.Stimpson, Walker took the attack to Writtle and hit some nice shots as he and Stimmo took us towards 180 and was unlucky when he got a leading edge down the ground to end his breezy 20. The rest came and went without adding much and we ended on a slightly below par 184.

After a well-made tea courtesy of Els who was no doubt up at the crack of dawn to make those sandwiches, we headed out to bowl.

Albert was carted for 4 first ball and we all feared the worst but he soon found his stride and settled in for a trademark spell. At the other end, Sean found some early movement and beat the opener’s bat numerous times. The deadlock was eventually broken when their opener tried to push the scoring along and smashed one up into the atmosphere before it returned and was well caught by Sprulesy.

Somewhere over the next few overs, I passed over the spot where YMD had fielded the previous week. Similarly to what I can only imagine happened to him, a strange feeling of nausea came over me and before I knew what had happened, I had lost all ability to play cricket which resulted in 2 dropped catches. (I have spoken to Nick and he is going to investigate a possible gas leak in the area around wide mid-off from the road end).

In all seriousness though, I have no excuses. I have no idea why I dropped the first one, it was an absolute dolly and the second one was even easier. These drops ultimately cost us the game and I take full responsibility for that! I’ll hit training hard this week and be back on it for next Saturday!

Snelly came on and was rewarded for some decent bowling as Walker took a good catch to leave them 2 down. Keen to make up for my dropped catches, I came on and went for about 22 off my first 3 overs. I persisted however and dragged it back, eventually being rewarded with the wicket of their number 5 who was caught by Sappy.

I continued to keep it tight and at the other end, Walker came on and immediately took a few wickets to put us well within the game. First of all, he had one caught down the ground by Greeno and not long after with some help from the umpire, he had their main man LBW.
With us rampant, Writtle desperately needed a partnership and some big hitting from Dillon and Jones looked to have moved the game back in their favour. Until the young guns struck. Snelly took a towering catch down the ground to remove Dillon off Walker and then the Snelly show began.

Pumped up and steaming in from the road end, Snelly had their number 8 caught by Greeno at mid-off (Thank god I had moved myself!) and then he rearranged Jones’ stumps next ball before morphing into Jamie Vardy and volleying the ball away to the ropes.
Sadly however, their number 9 was a decent bat and probably should have come in sooner. He punished anything that was slightly overpitched and launched a couple of big sixes to take them over the line leaving us all visibly devastated.

We don’t seem to like doing things the easy way! This is the 4th game this season where things have gone down to the wire and I’m not sure my heart can manage anymore. I couldn’t be prouder though of the whole team for their effort and for their fight in taking it right to the wire and for also putting on a mature display despite having to play in a pretty hostile atmosphere. It’s a shame that we ended up on the wrong side of a game like that but we will learn from this and come back stronger next week against Terling where we will I’m sure start the next unbeaten run to get us back up the table!