Whalers CC won by 13
runs
Morden Corinthians are
the Whalers’ bogey team. 10 times we’ve
played them, 10 defeats and barely a sniff of success. Even captain Dan had the fear and had
successfully avoided captaining against them in either game in 2008. Still… it was a sunny day in Teddington, Dan was in charge, and there was belief that
anything could happen.
After an
initial faff about which wicket was ours to play on,
the opening pair of Al and Pip stepped up to face the daunting Morden bowling
attack. The opening bowler (nicknamed
“Mr Angry” by his team mates) had a particularly impressive opening spell of
bowling, darting the ball into the right handers and
moving it away off the seam repeatedly and were it not for some strong batting
by Al and Pip, and a couple of more tough catches dropped, the Whalers tail
could have been in action early. As it
was the batsmen prevailed well, and despite a hissy fit over the LBW rule, Mr
Angry ended up wicketless.
With the
opening bowlers out of the way, Al and Pip looked to score runs and the Whalers
reached 52 for 0, including a cracking off drive from Pip. Sadly, this resulted in some misguided
confidence, and the very next ball Pip skied one to mid-off. 3 balls later, Si was struck on the pad and
the dreaded umpire’s finger was raised.
With the Whalers back under pressure, Khalil
came to the crease. Fortunately as it
turned out, he had only attack on the mind, scoring 28 of the next 32
runs. Morden had done their research
though, and some slow straight bowling proved too much for the Khalil who advanced up the pitch, swung the bat, and
envisioned the ball sailing over the boundary for 6… The reality… he was stumped!
The great
start was at risk. But, one of the truly
great partnerships was about to unfold. Al, began to attack the bowlers and was soon lofting his bat
on reaching 50. Debutant Rob then took
the lead playing aggressively, including one stunning flick over long-off for
6. Still, at 120 for 3 off 29 overs, runs were needed if we were going to put up a
fight. Something clicked, and both
batsmen started launching it. Morden
heads were beginning to drop. Rob passed
50, and the score passed 200. Excitement
grew even further as Al reached the 90s.
However, the heat was taking it’s toll and Al
was left begging for water (resulting in a water faff
eventually earning muppet moment for French
Will). All reached 99 in the 39th
over, but lost the strike. Neither
batsman knew he was so close to the landmark, however, and Rob held the strike
for first three balls of the final over.
Just as there were no Whalers’ finger nails left to bite, Al took the
strike and hammered the next ball high into the air… to safety. Deafening roars from the sidelines and Al’s
bat was raised aloft. Sadly
too early as he was run out by miles going for his second. Still Al’s first century for the Whalers in
his 108th game was a fantastic effort and easily earned the man of
the match award. Rob finished on 70 not
out as Whalers reached 242 for 4. A superb effort against a tough bowling attack.
A supremely
confident Whalers team now needed to bowl and field well if we were going to
make the most of the opportunity the batsmen had created. Dan and James (back from a pre-season in
The Whalers
needed to apply the pressure, and Kamal (5 overs, 1 wicket for 30), Khalil
(5 overs for 13) and Adam (8 overs,
1 wicket for 36) did exactly that. The
run rate began to increase and more and more errors slowed Morden’s
progress. After beating the bat
repeatedly and causing long head-aches for the batsmen, Adam took a great
caught & bowled. Si then took the 6th
wicket and the game was back in Whalers favour.
But more twists were to come…
Just as the
Whalers were getting excited, Mr Angry came into bat. First ball he smashed for 6, followed by a
big heave through square leg. Dan came
on, and received the same treatment.
Even when he had Mr Angry caught by James, it was sadly 5 metres over
the boundary! The Whalers needed to make
something happen quickly or the game would be gone. Dan stepped up to make the breakthrough. With an injured James bowling at the other
end keeping the runs down, Morden got desperate and tried some wild
running. The result was Pip earning the
second run out of the innings, shortly followed by a direct hit by Dan. With 18 runs required off the final over, Dan
took his 3rd wicket of the innings (all bowled) and the game was
won.
The
delighted Whalers settled in for a few beers and a fines session with all
missing Whalers fined for Duck Tongue avoidance…
Whalers: 242
for 4 from 40 overs (Dickenson 100, Eberstein
70*, Ahmed 28)
Morden Corinthians: 229
for 9 from 40 overs (Osgood 3-36)
Man of the match: Al
Champagne moment: Rob’s
straight 6
Muppet moment:
French Will
for the water faff