Whalers CC vs Philistines
CC,
Philistines won by 7 wickets
After the wash out against
Morden Corinthians, the Whalers rocked up, ready to compile their third win of
the season against a Philistines team playing their first game of the season,
and avenge a five wicket defeat against the same opposition, on the same pitch,
in similar conditions, 52 weeks prior.
Despite excuses varying from “time needed with the missus”, and “my
girlfriend wants to watch the FA cup final with me”, Duncs
successfully scraped together a team of 11 allrounders,
won the toss, and sent Stu and Will VDP out to bat.
The message was clear; Duncs wanted runs from the top 4. Bolstered by an
exceptional turn-out of 5 supporters including one still inside his/her Mum’s
tummy*, the top order started as ordered.
10 overs in, the score was 61 for 0 with Stu flying along, and Will VDP just behind. A moment later though, Stu
missed a straight one on 42 and Al was in, promoted to number 3. With one wicket usually comes another, but
not this time… Runs continued to flow
and the 100 was reached after just 17 overs. Will eventually fell for 41, but this brought
no relief for the Philistines as Duncs came in
chasing runs. Off the mark with a four, Duncs then hammered the first Whalers six of the season and
followed it with a few more fours. The
150 was reached in 24 overs with just two wickets
down.
The Philistines had a secret
weapon though… Slow loopy bowling! Duncs’ eyes lit up,
the bat raced through the air, the eyes followed the imaginary path of the ball
over cow-corner, the ball hit the pads. Rich was too amused to raise the finger and
just laughed Duncs back to the pavilion. Andy Nelson came in and then quickly
returned, swinging the bat with all his strength but missing the ball
completely, before Toby skied one and gave the bowler his third wicket. At the other end, Al batted his way to his
second successive fifty, eventually falling for 57. Rich hit a quick fire 12, while James
finished on 9 not out despite choosing to chest down a beamer from the
Philistines opening bowler. The Whalers
finished on 207 all out from 49.3 overs.
After tea, James and Rich
set about taking early wickets. Try as
they might, James failed to take advantage of downhill with the wind, while
Rich battled vainly against the conditions.
Still, after 10 overs, the Philistines were
only just past 40. Ed made the
breakthrough, bowling one of the openers, but this brought in an equally
proficient batsman, while at the other end, Clippy
bowled a good spell into the wind.
Although the scoring remained fairly slow, the
Whalers weren’t able to take the wickets needed, while the fielding was a
little sloppy with too many quick singles run.
Stu replaced Clippy and
quickly raised Whalers hopes by getting an LBW against the other opener for 56
and Ads, playing his first game of the season tried his luck with a few overs. However, a
couple of tough catches went down and the Whalers watched the Philistines move
towards the target. Without ever really
needing to dominate the bowlers, the batsmen drove with the wind behind them,
and scored quickly past deep square leg when the wind was against.
James came back on, and
after an expensive first over, took the third wicket courtesy of a sharp catch
from Toby. Clippy
bowled two more tight overs to finish with 7 overs for 27, the tightest figures of any bowler on the
day, but it proved to be too little too late.
The Philistines number three made his way to 50, and they finally
finished the match with five balls to go to win by seven wickets.
*Congratulations to the Terrell’s on the birth of their daughter! Zoe Miranda was born at 00:56 on Monday 28th May,
weighing 8lbs 9oz.
Match stats:
Whalers 207 all out – Al 56,
Stu 42, VDP 41, Duncs 27
Philistines 209 for 3
Man of the match: Al for his 50
Champagne moment: Clippy’s
boundary saving dive in the field
Muppet
moment: Duncs for probably the worst
head in the clouds heave and miss dismissal ever.