cricket 10 Jul 2006 02:20 pm
First Half Finished in Style
The first half of the 2006 league season is over, and we finished it in some style by beating Bournville convincingly. A top effort in the field followed by a solid batting effort to win by 7 wickets. Bournville do not look as strong as previous seasons and are clearly missing the bowling of skipper Green, struggling with a knee injury. Plenty of time for them to pull it back though.
Whilst we started well with two early wickets, Bournville were 55-2 from 11 overs and hitting the ball well. Excellent fielding (after Neal Rughani had already effected one run out) and tight bowling brought us back into the game - Jim Shirley bowled an excellent spell, and 4 wickets for Viz Parmar means he finishes the first half as leading wicket taker. Ronnie mopped up the tail, and whilst Simon Baxter only bowled a few overs - having him and Martin Weir in reserve shows the depth of bowling we have built up.
The batting response was not pretty at the very top of the order. I’m not sure I have ever been dropped on the point boundary, let alone off the second ball of the innings - and definitely never been dropped twice in the first 3 balls! However, all five of us who batted got to double figures - with Jack (32*) and Guy (15*) seeing us home by 7 wickets. Jack hit one of the bigger sixes of the season (onto the roof of the flats) and picked up the Man of the Match award for his batting, fine catch, and run out.
Our league record shows we have won two (Streetly, Bournville), lost two (Fillongley, Ansley), drawn four - of which one was a losing draw (YMF) and three winning draws (Stockton, Wishaw, Camp Hill OE), and finally three abandoned (Southam, Hampton, Bablake). In all fixtures played we had a chance of winning - and both losses could/should have been converted into wins.
Southam visit us next week to kick off the second half, and with 48 points covering places 2-10, it’s very difficult to predict who will finish where on 16th September.
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