Whalers V Morden Corinthians
Whalers lose by 7 wickets
The
match was at the
They
were sharp and didn’t give too much away, so the early progress was slow.
Things were a little shaky for a while as Dario got off the mark with a thick
edge through the slips, Al was caught behind off his glove and Oz was bowled
after hitting a couple of quick boundaries. With the score on 18 for 2 Gibbo came in and between him and Dario they managed to
block out the good stuff and get some of the bad balls away to build a bit of a
partnership. The first change of bowling brought on slower bowlers but there
was a reluctance by the batsmen to really get after
them. However, the scoreboard kept ticking over but after a while Dario scooped
one up to be caught.
Phil
was next and he hadn’t scored for his last three innings, so it was with much
relief that he didn’t waste much time in getting off the mark. Gibbo was the next man out for 27 runs, Phil managed a
useful 13 and Paul M 7. With the score on 99 for 6 with 10 overs
to go we needed to pick things up to get a half-decent total to bowl at. Bring
on Rich and Ads. The slow bowlers were still going, so there was plenty of
opportunity to get bat on ball which is exactly what they did. With some quick
running between the wickets the run rate duly accelerated. Even the return of
one of the opening bowlers (the other had opened up his knee diving in the
outfield) didn’t phase Ads or Rich, who continued to “have a good swing” and
managed to generate a 59 run partnership before Ads was caught with 2 balls to
go. Ads got 33 and Rich 24 not out.
So
the final score was 159, which we felt was probably a little short of what we
wanted but was definitely a score to get a win out of if we bowled well and
took our chances. The teas hadn’t arrived yet, so it was a quick turn around to
play the first 10 overs of the second innings.
Things
started well for us with Paul M and James bowling sharply and cutting a good
line. The batsmen started to get frustrated and just before the tea break the
continual fishing outside off stump by the Corinthian’s number 1 gave Paul his
just rewards as he nicked one to first slip. A Whalers slip catch is not a
common occurrence so although the batsmen were looking strong the talk at the
tea break was of a feeling that we could get a result here.
What
the Whalers needed now was some tight bowling and athletics in the field to
keep the run rate down and maybe get a wicket or two, but unfortunately things
started to get a bit loose. The batsmen settled in and the score started to
approach the target rather quicker than the skipper was comfortable with. A few
bowling changes didn’t produce the goods so, probably
a lot earlier than he would have wished, Ads had to turn to the opening bowlers
again. By this time the horse had already bolted and the batsmen were too
confident by now for Paul or James to stem the tide. Ads turned to Phil to see
if his leg breakers could produce any magic but sadly, with overs
to spare, the Corinthians reached the total before he got his chance. Best
figures were from Paul 1 for 28 off 7 and James 0 for 24 off 6.
After
a disappointing result against Balham Roamers the week before we wanted to put
in a good performance to get us back onto winning ways but it wasn’t to be, we
didn’t get enough runs on the board and our bowling lacked depth. All credit to
the Corinthians who out shone the Whalers on this day.
Man of the Match – Dario (35 runs, slip
catch)
Muppet moment – Al’s two “grass
cutters”
Champagne Moment – Dario’s slip catch