Crow Road v Bees, 28/04/2007

Crow Road v Bees
WDCU Div 5, Old Anniesland, 28/04/2007

Crow Road won toss and elected to field

Bees
P Barbour b Khan 37
Omand c A Stewart b Khan 24
Judge b Allen 6
Williams c and b Rixon 21
# Campbell run out (Rixon/Allen) 2
Tung c Gibson b Allen 0
Henderson c Miller b Allen 42
J McCrossan st Mishra b Rixon 0
* G Barbour not out 23
C McCrossan c Mishra b Allen 0
Extras 22
Total (all out, 40.4 ovs) 177

Khan 15-2-50-2, A Stewart 1-0-10-0, Allen 12.4-0-54-4,
Rixon 8-1-31-2, Ali 4-0-31-0

Crow Road
D Allen b G Barbour 35
# A Mishra retired hurt 5
* A Rixon lbw b G Barbour 18
U Ali b G Barbour 26
A Khan b Williams 9
G Stewart b Judge 6
A Stewart b Williams 6
C Stewart b Williams 0
I Miller lbw b P Barbour 10
D Tate b Williams 1
M Gibson not out 7
Extras 40
Total (all out, 40.3 ovs) 163

Williams 15-5-54-4, Judge 12-1-39-1, Tung 4-1-10-0,
G Barbour 8-1-23-3, P Barbour 1.3-0-6-1

Bees won by 14 runs
Bees 25 pts, Crow Road 9 pts

Match Report

Crow Road started the 2007 season with a tense home defeat at the hands of Bees (Clydesdale’s 4s). There were some major selection problems in the lead-up to the match, with the final XI still being put together half an hour before the start. In the end, the team included no fewer than 7 GHK debutants including 5 (Martin, Duncan and the three Stewart brothers) who had never even played a proper game of cricket before. Bearing this in mind, it was a fantastic achievement to come within 15 runs of victory.

New Crow Road captain Rixon won the toss and gave the opponents first use of the old astroturf under cloudless skies. Ali Khan opened the bowling from one end and, after a quick burst from Ally Stewart failed to pay off, Dave Allen came on at the other. The Bees openers weren’t afraid to go aerial, with most of their attacking shots lobbing in the air in the vicinity of Crow Road fielders. Unfortunately it tended to be the less experienced players on the end of the chances, and after a number of drops, Bees found themselves at 63-0 in the 12th over.

Ali then made the crucial breakthroughs, bowling one opener and having the other smartly held by Ally Stewart at short cover. Dave soon got in on the act as well, bowling the No.3, combining with Rixon for a run-out and watching on with some relief as Martin managed to hold on to a juggled catch. Suddenly the visitors were 90-5 and Crow Road were very much back in the game.

Bees’ 6th wicket pair, Williams and the impressive 13-year-old starlet Henderson, started to rebuild and had moved the score on to 132 when Rixon produced a slightly controversial double-wicket-maiden. First, Williams offered a low return catch to the bowler, which after some discussion was accepted as a clean take. His replacement was then furious to be stumped by the ever-alert Ashutosh after grounding his back foot behind the wrong one of the 2 crease-lines marked out at one end of the astro. (Does anyone know why there’s 2 lines there?)

The Bees captain calmed things down and helped Henderson to take the score to 177 before Dave wrapped the innings up courtesy of two catches behind the wicket off successive deliveries (as this was a one-off appearance, who knows when the hat-trick ball will be!).

With a glaring lack of batting experience in the Crow Road line-up, the top order batsmen knew they had to take responsibility if the target of 178 was to be challenged. Unfortunately the chase got off to a disastrous start as Ashutosh top-edged the fifth ball of the innings into his nose and had to retire hurt to seek medical attention. This brought Rixon to the crease and he attempted to play the anchor role as both Dave and Extras kept the scoring rate ticking over well above the required rate.

The score had progressed to 70-0 in the 16th over when Dave was bowled for 35. Young Umar then strode to the crease and proceeded to smack the ball to all parts of the ground, charging to 26 with five 4s before he too was bowled, swinging across the line. This was a key wicket as, although the score was still a healthy-looking 113-2, Bees were now well and truly into Crow Road’s sizeable tail.

Ali hit a couple of 4s behind square before his bails were dislodged, and then Rixon’s 27-over vigil came to an end when umpire Allen adjudged him lbw. Coming in at 6, 7 and 8, Crow Road’s trio of Stewarts contributed 12 between them, with the family bragging rites probably going to Gordon, who followed up an energetic fielding display with a promising innings which included a neat pull for 4 to fine leg.

It ultimately fell to Iain and the newest of the newbies, Duncan and Martin, to somehow conjure the 38 runs required for victory. While Iain picked off the bad balls, Duncan resisted well, and even managed a nice push to square leg which he stood admiring for so long that what would have been a comfortable 2 ended up as a scrambled single! When he became the fourth victim for the persevering Williams, it was Martin’s turn to take to the crease for the first time and, obviously not feeling the pressure of the situation, he proceeded to unfurl a truly unique range of shots, including a jab over cover with no backlift and a shot that abandoned the traditional ploy of using the bat in favour of trying to kick the ball away through midwicket.

Together, Iain and Martin kept chipping away at the target, and an extraordinary win was beginning to look on the cards when, to Bees’ obvious relief, Iain was pinned leg-before with Crow Road still 14 runs short.

To have taken 9 points, and threatened to take all 25, from this match was a real credit to all the Crow Road players involved. Fielding a full side was good in itself, but the commitment shown by everyone in the field and at the crease has really set an example to the more experienced line-ups the 3rd XI are likely to field later in the season. Hopefully we’ll see more of the same attitude in Sunday’s match away to Hillend.