I should explain that, in this version of this game, each bowler can only bowl a maximum of 20% of the total overs in a match – so we always need at least 5 bowlers. Realdoc and I are both all-rounders, but for safety’s sake I usually pick four specialist bowlers too.
However, this time I ran the risk of only picking three, so that two people who didn’t play last time, who are both classed as batspersons, could have a game – and to give us a bit of strength-in-depth on the batting front. For some reason I put Lisa (a batswoman) down at no. 11, where one of our bowlers would normally play – I thought we might need her if we collapsed.
They won the toss, and decided to bat. Tom made a breakthrough fairly early on, after only five runs had been scored. The next pair, however, proved almost impossible to get out. Every bowler we had tried, and failed. I gave Ivy 4 overs, as she’d been complaining of being under-used, but she was no more successful than anyone else.
Eventually I reluctantly decided that I’d have to bowl myself - and two of you dropped catches off my tempting slower off-break. I won’t name names, we’ve all done it. You know who you are. Anyway, it’s your birthday.
Finally, after 105 runs had been scored, I felt I had to lead from the front, and I held a catch off Vicus’ bowling.
We had now reached the stage where their 30 overs were nearly up, and as a result they were slogging the ball all over the place; I decided to keep myself on, and allow them to muck my figures up, rather than embarrass too many of you; finally Ivy held a catch off my bowling, and then in the final over Vicus returned the complement and held another catch. They scored 138-4 off their 30 overs – not an unreasonable target for us to chase, I felt.
Tea was rather sumptuous; ostrich-egg-and-cress sandwiches feature, I recall. Oh, and a special birthday cake for Phil, of course. He seemed to eat most of it.
I was concerned at my own batting ability against their attack. I’ve never been very good against fast bowling (I don’t have the reactions nowadays) and the game faithfully reflects that – you international players are given greater reaction times by the computer. As a result, I decided to drop myself down the order.
As it happens, that decision didn’t help me much, as our openers were skittled out very quickly, and I had to come in, with the score only having reached 15-2. I did my best to stay in, and pushed the score on a bit, but once I was out there was a general collapse, our Vice-Captain being the only other player to reach double figures.
We were on 72-9 – only about halfway to our target – when our final pair (Tom and Lisa) came together. Tom has, in previous tour matches, been out very quickly, but I begged him to block, and stay in, allowing Lisa, who is a recognised batsman, to score.
We were very lucky. They bowled a number of no-balls, which Tom was quick to spot, hitting three of them for 6’s. Bearing those 18 runs in mind, one can see that he did indeed block (or, to be honest, simply miss) a lot of balls – given that he faced in total 40 balls for his score of 24.
Gradually we crept closer to their score – but knowing that one more wicket, and we would be all out. It was very exciting, I can tell you.
When Lisa knocked the ball past the waiting fielder and made the winning run, I punched the air and cheered. We scored 139-9 and won.
5 comments:
wow!
(that was a comment about the tea)
and the cricket looks like it was good too. . .
I enjoyed the game, and say well done Lisa in getting that last run for us.
So that`s what was in the sandwiches, I wondered what it was - quite tasty.
Those ostrich egg sarnies didn't sit too well after all that bending and stretching.
In what universe is Lisa "a recognised batsman"???
The cake was very nice though - thanks.
I'm sorry. The England player who's name I changed to Lisa is a recognised batsman.
Lisa is of course a batswoman.
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