cricket 15 May 2006 11:40 am
A solid start
As I drove to Foliot Fields on Saturday morning, I was not really expecting us to get a game of cricket. Reports that the pitch had sweated heavily under the covers meant that any rain would give us problems. Overcast skies indicated that this was likely to happen at some point in the afternoon.
Upon inspecting the square, the other cut strip was drier than the pitch that had been covered, and so we chose to use track number 3 instead of 5. When the Walsall YMF skipper called correctly and chose to bat, I wondered whether I should have gambled and chosen the wetter pitch!
The match details
The scorecard and match report give the details of the game. I think we all agreed that we would have ‘taken’ 7 points if we had been offered them on Saturday morning, yet there was a feeling that we could have come out on top. It goes without saying that dropping their centurion, Fiaz, was a major turning point - and the sort of opportunity that just has to be taken at 1st team level. Having said that, their next batsman may well have been just as destructive - but we will never know.
Fielding
Our ground fielding was generally good, and although two other chances went down (not counting the very hard one that badly bruised Ronny’s thumb) - one was a batsman dismissed next over, and one was at the end (but would have given us another bowling point).
Bowling
Both opening bowlers performed well. Tim Westwood found pace, bounce, and movement. Viz Parmar bowled a long spell and looked comfortable in the role. Si Baxter produced a beauty to get his wicket, but shoulders unaccustomed to bowling tire quickly - this is only a short term issue, and his return to the side was great to see.
Batting
With the bat, losing only 4 wickets to a side containing Amar (62 league wickets last season and generally gets 5+ against us!) is an achievement in itself. Only the captain failed - Adam Coppell showed much promise at opener, Guy Morris looked as though he’d been netting all winter, and both Martin Weir and Naz Ali showed good shot selection to get the extra batting points for us. With Jack Hemming, Neal Rughani, Rob Jordan to add to the lineup, as well as the outstanding early season form of Tom Hemming, plus Keith Rondeau, Jim Shirley, Rick Singh, Si Baxter, there is plenty of batting potential in the team.
Next Week
Top of the league Bablake Old Boys are our hosts, and they have clearly continued their division-winning form of the previous season. Their victories have been against YMF (who admitted they pressed the self destruct button chasing a target they felt confident of getting) and Hampton - who came down from the Premier last season and are our visitors the week after next.
Injury worries for Keith Rondeau and Viz Parmar are a problem, the side selected will be published tomorrow. Likely XI: W Hemming, A Coppell, N Ali, M Weir, J Hemming, T Hemming, N Rughani, S Baxter, T Westwood, R Singh, V Parmar.
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