Whalers CC lost by 5
wickets
With the
tennis at Wimbledon fast approaching it was Whalers who ventured deep into SW19
territory on a gloriously sunny afternoon although by the end of the day,
several Whalers would be wishing they had been allowed to use tennis racquets
out in the middle.
The match
was well primed as just a few weeks before, Whalers
had beaten Morden for the first time and as such wanted to show it was no fluke
whereas Corinthians only had revenge in mind. The day started well with a minor
victory in that Osgood won the toss and elected to bat. Openers Terrell &
Dickenson strode out confidently into the middle although just a few balls
later it was Stu who was returning to the hutch having played on to the fiery
kiwi A.Allan without troubling the scorers. Duncs was next in and played some nice shots before
departing for 9 to the same bowler – affectionately nicknamed “Mr Angry” by the
capacity crowd.
At this
point, the score was 10-2 and things were not looking good for Whalers.
However, a superb 109-run partnership between Dickenson and Eberstein
brought Whalers roaring back, Al notching a defiant fifty in the process
against a good bowling attack. Rob supported his partner well and both batsmen
continued to rotate the strike frustrating the opposition. When Al fell for 53,
caught off the spinner Rafiq, Manzi
was next to the crease for his season debut although before he had really
settled, Rob was out stumped off the bowling of Rafiq
for a well-made 40.
This
brought specialist wicket-keeper batsman Toby out to the middle but with two
new batsmen at the crease, Morden were looking to give the pair no time to
settle and soon after Emmerson was out leg-before
without scoring, Manzi followed suit going for a
heave but mis-reading the “reverse bouncer” which
pea-rolled into his stumps and thus departed for the third duck of the day. It
was during this spell that Rafiq had taken 4 wickets for
the addition of just 8 runs and the scoreboard now read 127-6 off 32 overs. Not only did the Whalers dressing room struggle to
keep up with the flurry of wickets but so did the scoreboard operators who were
not used to contending with the “digital-style” analogue scoreboard and the troublesome
issues it could present.
Lucas, who
had already notched a few singles and a 3, and Kamal
were the seventh wicket partnership but by now, the middle-order collapse had
heaped the pressure on trying to attain a decent total and both were to fall
off the bowling of Patel for 7 and 6 respectively. Dan came in and scampered a
few runs and there was time was a brief cameo from Whalers debutant Steve Newmark who (as he himself predicted) hit a glorious
cover-drive before being resoundingly bowled, bringing back memories of Channa’s debut in Berkhamsted two
seasons prior.
The last
man to fall was Blane off the bowling of Angry and
Whalers ended up 145 all out off 36.3 overs – a
disappointing total considering we had been reasonably well placed at the innings
mid-way point.
There was
obviously a lot of work to do for Whalers after tea and they started off well
as Ben Blane took the wicket of Morden’s opening
batsman in the second over, the ball just grazing the off-stump and dislodging
the bail. Not to be outdone at the other end, a visibly relieved Lucas took his
first wicket of the season bowling Corinthians’ number three Edmed for 1. A brief partnership was to develop between Wadhwa and Rafiq before Wadhwa was bowled by Blane and
the Whalers fielders ran in to congratulate in their now infamous huddle. This
however was cut short when Wadhwa refused to walk,
citing two of the crowd in his line of sight and thus the “wicket” was
sportingly rendered a dead-ball. Obviously feeling guilty of pulling a bit of a
fast-one, Wadhwa sportingly returned the favour and
next ball, in trying to smash Blane back over his
head, merely succeeded in skying the ball back in the
direction of the bowler. Quickly getting out his trigonometry kit, Blane successfully calculated where the ball would fall in
relation to the stumps, realised he would not impale himself and took the
catch.
Blane was
not finished there and soon afterwards was celebrating a “proper wicket” as
O’Neil edged behind and Emmerson diving full stretch
took the catch, much to the relief of Duncs whose
shins were strategically positioned to take another battering on behalf of the
Whale. Morden were now 30-4, Blane’s figures at
5-1-13-3 and Whalers were right in the game.
Sensing
blood, Osgood threw the ball to Newmark (who at 7’2”
is officially the tallest player to ever don the Whale) and is assumed to have
given him instructions to intimidate the batsmen. Newmark
did not disappoint with a few decent deliveries interspersed with the odd
full-toss beamer – his radar alternating between first-slip, the batsman’s
wicket and his head. Unfortunately though, the umpires did not approve of this
tactic and continued to give a variety of wides,
no-balls and byes. By this time though, Rafiq was
well-set and Morden had upped the run rate considerably. In one final throw of
the dice, Osgood turned to the Whalers’ specialist partnership-breaker Kamal but despite Special K maintaining his reputation and
taking a wicket, Corinthians had wickets in hand and plenty of overs left. In the end, it was left to Rafiq,
who finished on 62* and Lang (who had previously bowled very economically
without a wicket) to knock off the remaining runs and Corinthians had finished
on 149-5 off 26 overs winning the match by 5 wickets.
Summing up,
there were positives on the batting front from Dickenson and Eberstein, good bowling from Blane
and Lucas in particular and some good fielding but the Whalers innings total
was not high enough to give the bowlers something to bowl at and so despite a
lot of effort put in by all, it wasn’t enough for victory on this occasion.
The match
ended with the habitual fines session, where numerous Whalers were dug out
about their attire and antics and where the dulcet tones of four buxom
Whalers: 145 ao (36.3 overs)
Morden Corinthians: 149-5
(26.4 overs)
Man of the match: Ben Blane
Champagne moment: Toby’s
catch off Ben’s bowling – the “proper” wicket
Muppet moment: Steve (for his Harmison-style
first ball straight to first slip)