Watery Orton

On the first Saturday of the summer where the temperature was crickety, Fillongley visited water orton, our local nvko rivals.

After losing the toss, Fillongley were inserted on what seemed a May wicket with a tinge of green.

Revell was in the mood of giving the others a go and was swiftly back into the pavilion, having lost his leg pole. Waq joined the classy Reg and a slow but steady partnership started to build. Water orton had one outstanding fielder and over the course of our whole innings, it was general consensus he had saved at least thirty runs. Reg was the second wicket to fall, caught at slip when the appeal was for leg before. Franks and sayed started the rebuild and just as the innings was gaining some fluidity, Franks was judged lbw, Fillongley now in a spot of bother at 34-3. It was now down to the two rotund Asians to score some runs and five the innings momentum. Saj looked in sublime touch from ball one as he stroked the ball into gaps with relative ease. Sayed was struggling at the other end and what looked a fluent innings to begin with ended with an attempt to kick the ball of middle stump. The score was now 65-4. Blackmore, Elliot and Daud didn't score many and at 89-7 the end was nigh. Saj found support from H and the score started to move slowly, past 100 and then a bit further. While H was stubborn in his occupation of the crease, Saj was classy and timed the ball sweetly to a fantastic 50, made on a difficult wicket against very accurate bowling. He finally succumbed to Ed harris, immediately after his 50. Junior spanked an on drive and then Binga was adjudged LBW, the 6th in the innings as the storks folded for 130.

Ed Harris is to Junior as Atherton was to McGrath and the first ball of the innings had him pinned. The second ball had the number 3 pinned and the hosts were 0-2. Junior was at it again in his next two overs as water orton slipped to 20-4. The number 6 was a decent batsman and he stroked the ball into gaps with ease as the hosts fought back. Binga came into the attack and struck in his second over, sayed taking a catch at slip. At 30-5 It was la la la but water orton had some fight left as the last two recognised batsman put a partnership of 30 to wrestle the hosts out of a sticky situation. The momentum shifted again as H broke the partnership and at 68-6, Fillongley were in with a sniff.

By this time the clouds were starting to build up and as the umpires took us off for bad light, the heavens opened and that was that. The square was soaked and that was the end of that.

In short, we batted poorly and there were some dubious decisions. They bowled really well, were special in the field and made it difficult to score. They also batted poorly but we also bowled well and fielded well and thought we were going to finish 1st.. A good game all round and that's the best intensity I have witnessed for a while.

We keep playing like this and this season could be a very positive one.

Waq