WORLD TOUR – Match 4

So, a visit to South Africa.

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.

World Tour, Match Three

We played Zimbabwe. I would rather not have done, but we were contractually obliged to, as part of our tour of Africa.

I won the toss, and decided to bat. Their bowling attack was, frankly, weak, and Richard and I made hay while the sun shone, knocking up over a hundred runs before Richard, just short of his half-century, skied a ball, to be caught.

Jona joined me in the runfest, getting herself out only after having seen me score my century. Sadly, a few balls latter I dollied a catch back to the bowler.

The rest of you continued to strike the ball to every part of the field, with Steg getting a half century.

We were all out, as you will see, for a magnificent total of 339.

We brought our own sandwiches for tea.

In a replay of last week’s match, Tom and Realdoc got the opener’s wickets in their first overs.

This was followed by an heroic display of line and length from Phil, who bowled maiden over after maiden over, whilst the rest of our bowlers tried their best to winkle the opposition out.

Eventually they folded, having got nowhere near our total.

Well done all. The man-of-the-match award is detailed over at my blog.

We have, I suspect, more serious opposition to come.

World Tour, Match Two

There is an apology for my bowling performance, over at my blog.

Our floating clubhouse has arrived in Africa, for the first of several matches. This match was against Kenya, who won the toss, and decided to bat.

In their first overs, Tom and Realdoc got both the openers out for ducks. With their main batting threat removed, I decided to allow every member of the team (apart from Richard, our keeper, obviously) a bowl – partly to find out if there’s some hidden talent amongst you.

There isn’t.

I returned to our main bowlers, and eventually a breakthrough came when Phil and I took our turn. The Kenyans had obviously never come up against my style of slow off-breaks, and time after time they played early, or over the ball. In one over, four wickets fell in four successive balls (my first ever hat-trick).

Tea was interesting.

Richard, sadly, was run out, going to a quick single. Steg and I knocked off the winning runs.

World Tour, Match One

As they’re in this country, and had time on their hands in the evening, the first match in our world tour was against the West Indies.

We played them in a limited over match – 30 overs a side.

I won the toss, and decided to bat.

Richard and I made a good start, and I was just looking forward to reaching my half-century when I lazily lobbed the ball straight back to the bowler.

The rest of you played very well, and aggressively, with plenty of 6’s being hit. Hitting the ball in the air did, unfortunately, also give plenty of catches. Some of our older players misjudged their running ability, and caused run-outs. Nevertheless, I was very satisfied with our score of 218-10.

Although ILTV still keeps the score in the book, Ziggi now has an electronic score-board to display the results, and as the match was also televised, I took photos from the TV, rather than the book. Here’s our score-card then (the white figures are the runs each batsperson scored, the yellow is how many balls it took to reach that score – some of you, you will note, scored quite quickly). Oh, and the computer needed a first and last name for each of you – where I don’t know it, I’ve put ‘Blogger’ as your first name – hence ‘B. Tom’ appears, for instance.

The object, in limited overs cricket, is not to bowl the opposition out, just stop them scoring more than you, so economy, rather than aggression, was our watchword.

I let the rest of you bowl before me (partly because their openers were both lefthanders, and I don’t like bowling to them [I have to bowl around the wicket]). Eventually, though, I did have to take my turn – and got two lefties out (both of them, as it happens, players with of some repute).

The rest of you held things together very well (although a lot of catches were dropped – three of them, annoyingly, off my bowling). They finished on 157-5 at the end of their 30 overs – so we won by 61 runs.

Their batting and our bowling figures follow.