Crow Road v Home Park
WDCU Div 5, Old Anniesland, 26/05/2007
Crow Road won toss and elected to bat
Crow Road
S Alcock lbw b Praveen 6
D Hoffmann c Zahid b Key 8
G Smillie b Javaid 61
W Hussain b Zahid 2
# M Hussain c Raj b Zahid 4
* A Rixon b Frazer 30
A Malik not out 36
B Hussain b Javaid 9
Z Iqbal b Praveen 1
I Miller run out 0
W Murray c Zahid b Javaid 0
Extras 70
Total (all out, 49.2 ovs) 227
Praveen 9-0-30-2, Key 5-0-14-1, Zahid 6-0-17-2,
McGrath 5-0-21-0, Javaid 13.2-2-31-3, Sam 6-0-30-0,
McGlashan 4-0-35-1, Waleed 1-0-24-0
Home Park
Mobin b Malik 3
Javaid c Hoffmann b W Hussain 62
# Raj b Murray 8
Sam lbw b Rixon 5
Key b W Hussain 0
Praveen b Malik 8
McGrath b W Hussain 12
McGlashan c Smillie b Malik 0
Waleed b Malik 0
Raheel b W Hussain 1
* Zahid not out 0
Extras 38
Total (all out, 23.5 ovs) 137
Malik 12-3-51-4, Murray 4-0-31-1, Rixon 2-0-20-1,
W Hussain 5.5-0-20-4
Crow Road won by 90 runs
Crow Road 25 pts, Home Park 8 pts
Match Report
Crow Road chalked up their second win of the season with a strong performance against Home Park (Motherwell 2s). There was the odd scare along the way – particularly when the top order subsided to 47-4 after Rixon chose to bat – but for the most part, it was a far more comfortable and controlled display than in any of the previous three matches.
The day started with something of an own-goal when Yoda (of 1st XI fame) brought along two new players to fill just one space in the Crow Road team. It was Danny Hoffmann who got the nod to play – but his mate Jimmy, looking like a pro in an England Test match top, was promptly snapped up by Home Park who’d only turned up with 10. Steve-o and Danny therefore walked out to bat hoping that he wouldn’t prove to be the next Ryan Sidebottom.
As it turned out, he didn’t open the bowling, but the pair that did were pretty useful and Crow Road were soon in a spot of bother. Danny hit a catch to one of the fielders in the off-side ring and Steve-o was trapped lbw before the score had reached 30. The Home Park captain then brought himself on and found some swing to remove Waqas and Mobeen cheaply.
This brought Smillie and Rixon together – club-mates for years but surprisingly having batted together just once before (a last-wicket stand of 31 in 2003). With only one of the Crow Road XI over the age of 25, they also represented two of the more experienced heads in the team and duly brought some calm to proceedings, taking the score past 100 for no further loss in the 29th over. Smillie was the more free-scoring and had soon brought up his first 50 of the season with one of the well-worked singles that characterised his innings. He celebrated the landmark by top-edging a full toss over longstop for 6 as Crow Road looked to up the scoring rate towards the closing overs.
The partnership was six runs short of 100 when Smillie was bowled by a full ball from Javaid for a well-constructed 61 (115 mins, 95 balls, 6x4, 1x6). In the next over, Rixon started to cut loose against some increasingly erratic bowling, only to miss a rare straight ball and depart for 30. With 12 overs remaining, and the score on 155-6, there was still every chance that Crow Road could be bowled out well short of 200, but Azeem soon put these worries to bed with an explosive final flourish. Taking a particular liking to Home Park’s 8th bowler, who he smashed for three consecutive 6s, Azeem added 55 with Blaal to bring up Crow Road’s highest total of the season. With support from Zishaan, Iain (unfortunately run out for a duck once again!) and Will, he then kept the innings going into the final over before Will was caught after middling a textbook cover drive straight to a fielder!
With such a youthful lineup and after such a stuttering start, the final score of 227 was a terrific effort and illustrated the value of building a platform for some big hitting in the final 10 or 15 overs. It has to be said, though, that Home Park didn’t help themselves by contributing an obscene total of 70 Extras. Crow Road were hoping for a much tighter bowling display as the teams re-emerged after tea.
Unfortunately, the first few overs were anything but tight. Although Azeem and Will both claimed an early wicket and created a couple of other missed chances, the opener Javaid was smashing the ball all around the park, keeping the Home Park scoring rate around 7 an over. Rixon came on for Will and dismissed the No. 4 with one of the few balls he landed in the right half of the pitch, but by and large there was nothing any of the seamers could do against Javaid except bowl to defensive fields and hope for a mistake.
To try and stem the tide, Waqas was brought on to bowl his spinners as early as the 14th over. Straight away, he got one to turn past the bat of their No. 5 and hit the stumps, but the big breakthrough came in his third over when, with the score on 112, Javaid hit a drive to Danny at cover and he thankfully held on to the catch. This was due reward for Waqas’ control of line and length and it marked the end of any serious Home Park challenge. Azeem, now bowling with good rhythm, had no trouble tearing through what remained of the middle order, and just as Zishaan and Blaal were warming up to bowl, he and Waqas rather unkindly took the remaining three wickets in their last overs to finish with 4 each.
Crow Road therefore ran out winners by 90 runs and could reflect on a job well done. When the going got tough in both batting and bowling, there were players prepared to take on the responsibility of bringing the situation back under control. There was also a livelier effort in the field, and a better spirit between the teams than in previous matches. A repeat performance against Marress next week will do very nicely.
Saturday 26 May 2007
Saturday 12 May 2007
Crow Road v Alps, 12/05/2007
Crow Road v Alps
WDCU Div 5, Old Anniesland, 12/05/2007
Crow Road won toss and elected to field
Alps
* Siddiqui retired hurt 54
Paton not out 85
Stone b Christie 3
Ahuja lbw b Christie 5
# Jones lbw b Christie 9
McLaren b Iqbal 16
Harding b Iqbal 0
Murray b Christie 7
Bashir b Christie 0
Gleed not out 1
Extras 57
Total (7 wkts, 50 ovs) 237
Smart did not bat
I Hussain 6-0-16-0, Smillie 7-0-26-0, Christie 16-1-67-5,
A Hussain 13-1-74-0, Malik 5-0-21-0, Iqbal 3-0-16-2
Crow Road
A Mustoe b Smart 1
A Hussain b Smart 15
A Christie b Stone 4
G Smillie c Stone b Gleed 18
# M Hussain b Stone 73
I Hussain c Harding b Bashir 4
A Malik b Stone 14
Z Iqbal b Stone 0
* A Rixon lbw b Murray 5
G Semple b Stone 0
D Tate not out 0
Extras 51
Total (all out, 45 ovs) 185
Smart 15-2-34-2, Stone 11-0-25-5, Gleed 8-0-38-1,
Bashir 3-0-38-1, Harding 3-0-26-0, Murray 5-2-13-1
Alps won by 52 runs
Alps 25 pts, Crow Road 8 pts
Match Report
A brilliant innings of 73 from Mobeen, undoubtedly the standout performance of Crow Road’s season so far, was not enough to stave off defeat against the Alps after a generally disappointing team display. On a grey day on the magic carpet at Old Anniesland, Alps’ 237-7 was probably 30 runs above par, and with the Crow Road batsmen struggling to build partnerships, only fleetingly did it ever look under threat.
As 1pm approached, the outfield was still damp from morning rain, and in hindsight Rixon’s decision to bowl first may have been a mistake. The match ball quickly became wet and difficult to grip, and this, coupled with a rather flat performance in the field, allowed Alps’ opening pair to move serenely past 100. In the early stages, they barely managed to hit the ball off the square, but didn’t really need to as opening bowlers Ijaz and Smillie interspersed their good balls with two or three extras each over. When Yoda and Adil were brought on, however, the ball started to disappear off the square with alarming regularity. Yoda opened his season with a rank half-tracker that was smashed for 4 and Adil struggled for control with a ball that was by now extremely greasy.
Siddiqui was the first of the openers to reach 50 and they were both looking relatively untroubled when the Old Anniesland astroturf injury jinx stuck again. In an incident eerily reminiscent of Ashutosh’s broken nose, Siddiqui top edged a full toss into his mouth and had to leave the pitch streaming blood and minus two front teeth. Unfortunate as this was, it did finally give Crow Road the opportunity to get stuck into the Alps middle order and Yoda proved more than equal to the task. First, he bowled the No. 3, then won two LBW decisions – against Ahuja (who failed to connect with a particularly agricultural mow) and Jones.
The 4th wicket pair progressed steadily to 212 before Zishaan made a double breakthrough in the 46th over, pitching the ball up to bowl McLaren and Harding. Yoda then produced a repeat performance in the final over, knocking over two of the lower order batsmen to finish with a career-best 5-67. Still, the good finish couldn’t disguise a disappointing overall showing in the field. There weren’t many really expensive overs or bad misfields (and there was only one dropped catch, ironically by Duncan who was otherwise the best fielder on the day) – it was just a general lack of sharpness from the fielders and inconsistency from the bowlers that caused the problems, summed up by a huge total of 57 Extras.
The target was therefore a stiff one – 237 – although the weather had cleared up and the Crow Road batting line-up went quite deep for once. After a bad start, when Ally Mustoe and Yoda both fell early against nagging swing bowling, Adil and Smillie steadied the ship with some sound defence. It wasn’t the most fluent of partnerships, but did see off the new ball and laid the platform for the big-hitters in the middle order.
When Adil was bowled for 15, Mobeen came to the crease with the required run rate just above 6 an over and straight away settled into a mode of controlled attack. While he didn’t score any boundaries to start with, he also kept the dot balls to a minimum, picking off 1s and 2s with ease. This rubbed off on Smillie, who had got a bit bogged down, and together they moved the score to 93 in the 30th over. More significantly, Alps had now brought on bowlers who were far easier to score off than their openers. It was therefore to his immense frustration that, having done all the hard work, Smillie holed out to a fielder just inside the ropes as he tried to open his shoulders. It looked like Crow Road’s key man was gone – but not today. The real key man was still there, at the other end, and he was only just getting started.
Supported first by Ijaz and then Azeem, Mobeen proceeded to massacre the bowling with a succession of huge shots through the leg side. One Bashir over disappeared for 20, then another from Harding went for 14 as at one stage Mobeen racked up 40 from 18 balls. His partnership with Azeem (who joined in the fun with a big straight 6) had reached 61, and the score 171-5 off 39.5 overs, when Azeem was bowled for 14. Zishaan followed soon after but, in contrast to the approach the opposition might have taken, Crow Road decided to keep pressing for the win. Needing 54 off 7 overs, it was just about still on until Stone struck the crucial blow, bowling Mobeen for a career-best 73 (off just 58 balls with 11x4).
Immediately attention turned to saving the draw, with Rixon, Semple and Duncan not famed for their range of shots. Unfortunately Semple rather inappropriately attempted to hoick a straight one and was bowled second ball, after which Rixon proceeded to make a bit of a fool of himself. Trying to steal a single through backward point to farm the strike, he was dismissed in about as embarrassing a way as is possible: LBW hit on the box reverse-sweeping. With 5 overs left unbowled, Alps took the win by 52 runs – a win that was, on the overall balance of play, fully deserved. In time, though, you have to wonder if this game might be remembered for something more significant than the result – namely the innings where one of GHK’s promising youngsters started to deliver on their potential and hopefully laid the platform for plenty more major contributions in future.
WDCU Div 5, Old Anniesland, 12/05/2007
Crow Road won toss and elected to field
Alps
* Siddiqui retired hurt 54
Paton not out 85
Stone b Christie 3
Ahuja lbw b Christie 5
# Jones lbw b Christie 9
McLaren b Iqbal 16
Harding b Iqbal 0
Murray b Christie 7
Bashir b Christie 0
Gleed not out 1
Extras 57
Total (7 wkts, 50 ovs) 237
Smart did not bat
I Hussain 6-0-16-0, Smillie 7-0-26-0, Christie 16-1-67-5,
A Hussain 13-1-74-0, Malik 5-0-21-0, Iqbal 3-0-16-2
Crow Road
A Mustoe b Smart 1
A Hussain b Smart 15
A Christie b Stone 4
G Smillie c Stone b Gleed 18
# M Hussain b Stone 73
I Hussain c Harding b Bashir 4
A Malik b Stone 14
Z Iqbal b Stone 0
* A Rixon lbw b Murray 5
G Semple b Stone 0
D Tate not out 0
Extras 51
Total (all out, 45 ovs) 185
Smart 15-2-34-2, Stone 11-0-25-5, Gleed 8-0-38-1,
Bashir 3-0-38-1, Harding 3-0-26-0, Murray 5-2-13-1
Alps won by 52 runs
Alps 25 pts, Crow Road 8 pts
Match Report
A brilliant innings of 73 from Mobeen, undoubtedly the standout performance of Crow Road’s season so far, was not enough to stave off defeat against the Alps after a generally disappointing team display. On a grey day on the magic carpet at Old Anniesland, Alps’ 237-7 was probably 30 runs above par, and with the Crow Road batsmen struggling to build partnerships, only fleetingly did it ever look under threat.
As 1pm approached, the outfield was still damp from morning rain, and in hindsight Rixon’s decision to bowl first may have been a mistake. The match ball quickly became wet and difficult to grip, and this, coupled with a rather flat performance in the field, allowed Alps’ opening pair to move serenely past 100. In the early stages, they barely managed to hit the ball off the square, but didn’t really need to as opening bowlers Ijaz and Smillie interspersed their good balls with two or three extras each over. When Yoda and Adil were brought on, however, the ball started to disappear off the square with alarming regularity. Yoda opened his season with a rank half-tracker that was smashed for 4 and Adil struggled for control with a ball that was by now extremely greasy.
Siddiqui was the first of the openers to reach 50 and they were both looking relatively untroubled when the Old Anniesland astroturf injury jinx stuck again. In an incident eerily reminiscent of Ashutosh’s broken nose, Siddiqui top edged a full toss into his mouth and had to leave the pitch streaming blood and minus two front teeth. Unfortunate as this was, it did finally give Crow Road the opportunity to get stuck into the Alps middle order and Yoda proved more than equal to the task. First, he bowled the No. 3, then won two LBW decisions – against Ahuja (who failed to connect with a particularly agricultural mow) and Jones.
The 4th wicket pair progressed steadily to 212 before Zishaan made a double breakthrough in the 46th over, pitching the ball up to bowl McLaren and Harding. Yoda then produced a repeat performance in the final over, knocking over two of the lower order batsmen to finish with a career-best 5-67. Still, the good finish couldn’t disguise a disappointing overall showing in the field. There weren’t many really expensive overs or bad misfields (and there was only one dropped catch, ironically by Duncan who was otherwise the best fielder on the day) – it was just a general lack of sharpness from the fielders and inconsistency from the bowlers that caused the problems, summed up by a huge total of 57 Extras.
The target was therefore a stiff one – 237 – although the weather had cleared up and the Crow Road batting line-up went quite deep for once. After a bad start, when Ally Mustoe and Yoda both fell early against nagging swing bowling, Adil and Smillie steadied the ship with some sound defence. It wasn’t the most fluent of partnerships, but did see off the new ball and laid the platform for the big-hitters in the middle order.
When Adil was bowled for 15, Mobeen came to the crease with the required run rate just above 6 an over and straight away settled into a mode of controlled attack. While he didn’t score any boundaries to start with, he also kept the dot balls to a minimum, picking off 1s and 2s with ease. This rubbed off on Smillie, who had got a bit bogged down, and together they moved the score to 93 in the 30th over. More significantly, Alps had now brought on bowlers who were far easier to score off than their openers. It was therefore to his immense frustration that, having done all the hard work, Smillie holed out to a fielder just inside the ropes as he tried to open his shoulders. It looked like Crow Road’s key man was gone – but not today. The real key man was still there, at the other end, and he was only just getting started.
Supported first by Ijaz and then Azeem, Mobeen proceeded to massacre the bowling with a succession of huge shots through the leg side. One Bashir over disappeared for 20, then another from Harding went for 14 as at one stage Mobeen racked up 40 from 18 balls. His partnership with Azeem (who joined in the fun with a big straight 6) had reached 61, and the score 171-5 off 39.5 overs, when Azeem was bowled for 14. Zishaan followed soon after but, in contrast to the approach the opposition might have taken, Crow Road decided to keep pressing for the win. Needing 54 off 7 overs, it was just about still on until Stone struck the crucial blow, bowling Mobeen for a career-best 73 (off just 58 balls with 11x4).
Immediately attention turned to saving the draw, with Rixon, Semple and Duncan not famed for their range of shots. Unfortunately Semple rather inappropriately attempted to hoick a straight one and was bowled second ball, after which Rixon proceeded to make a bit of a fool of himself. Trying to steal a single through backward point to farm the strike, he was dismissed in about as embarrassing a way as is possible: LBW hit on the box reverse-sweeping. With 5 overs left unbowled, Alps took the win by 52 runs – a win that was, on the overall balance of play, fully deserved. In time, though, you have to wonder if this game might be remembered for something more significant than the result – namely the innings where one of GHK’s promising youngsters started to deliver on their potential and hopefully laid the platform for plenty more major contributions in future.
Sunday 6 May 2007
Hillend v Crow Road, 06/05/2007
Hillend v Crow Road
WDCU Div 5, Glenpark, 06/05/2007
Hillend won toss and elected to bat
Hillend
M Robertson c Mansell b Murray 59
Gerrard c Smillie b Curtis 6
Thomson b Curtis 17
Copeland b Smillie 3
* P Robertson b Curtis 11
Sharman c Mustoe b Curtis 1
# Baum c Smillie b Curtis 1
McDougall c Rixon b Ali 2
Peterson b Curtis 1
McPaul c Rixon b Curtis 0
Daisley not out 9
Extras 11
Total (all out, 26.4 ovs) 121
Curtis 13-1-53-7, Smillie 10-0-51-1, Murray 3-0-14-1,
Ali 0.4-0-2-1
Crow Road
S Alcock lbw b McDougall 10
A Mansell c Copeland b Peterson 35
G Smillie c Gerrard b Copeland 37
# A Mustoe lbw b Thomson 7
L Curtis b Copeland 4
U Ali c P Robertson b Thomson 4
* A Rixon not out 4
W Murray b Copeland 0
I Miller run out 0
J Pulley not out 0
Extras 21
Total (8 wkts, 40.2 ovs) 122
L McDermid did not bat
Sharman 6-0-20-0, McDougall 10-0-25-1, Peterson 5-1-21-1,
McPaul 6-1-17-0, Copeland 8-0-25-3, Thomson 5.2-2-9-2
Crow Road won by 2 wickets
Crow Road 25 pts, Hillend 5 pts
Match Report
Crow Road picked up their first win of the season in nerve-shredding circumstances, surviving a catastrophic batting collapse to edge out Hillend by 2 wickets at a showery Glenpark. After restricting the home side to 121, then cruising to 105-2, it was almost incomprehensible that Crow Road could come so close to defeat, but 30 minutes of brainless batting left the match on a knife edge before Rixon and debutant Jon Pulley finally scrambled the winning single.
The Hillend captain won the toss but somewhat bizarrely offered Rixon the choice of what to do. The home side were promptly inserted in drizzly conditions to face Smillie and Luke Curtis, also playing his first match for the club. Crow Road started uncertainly, with a number of chances going to ground just as they did last week - this is evidently something that needs to be worked on at training. Even when Smillie managed to hang on to a skier in the 5th over, it only brought to the crease a batsman who was clearly a class above any of his team-mates.
The score was racing along, with Smillie going for 27 off 11 balls at one point including a 6 that disappeared into a nearby back garden. Thankfully, Luke made a crucial breakthrough, forcing the No. 3 to play-on for 17, and this completely shifted the balance of power, to the extent that only 4 more boundaries were scored in the remainder of the innings.
Smillie tightened up his line and length and got due reward when he bowled the No.4, and then Luke exploded through the middle order, taking 5 more wickets for 12 runs. Some of these were to excellent balls, though a couple of the Hillend batsmen did themselves no favours by miscuing full tosses to the off-side fielders. In any case, Luke’s superb final analysis of 7-53 is right up there on the list of best-ever innings returns for a GHK bowler.
Towards the end there was also a promising spell from another GHK debutant, Will Murray, which included the wicket of the opener Robertson for a resilient, if slightly fortuitous, 59. Umar also got amongst the wickets, finishing off the innings courtesy of a skier to mid-on.
That left Crow Road chasing a target of 122 and, after a short rain delay, Steve Alcock and Manse strode out to open. Six overs were safely negotiated before the rain came down again, causing a further half-hour interruption, and by the time the match resumed the wicket was starting to resemble a bit of a bog. Manse still played with impressive fluency, hitting one particularly attractive cover drive, before he was caught out by the increasingly slow bounce and mishit a drive to a fielder for 35.
Smillie came in at No. 3 and played with calm assurance, while Steve-o’s somewhat stroke-free innings (10 off 64 balls) was just starting to get going when he was unfortunate to be judged LBW. Ally Mustoe (who had earlier kept very tidily) replaced him and helped guide the score to 105-2 in the 33rd over. Everything looked very comfortable – so comfortable in fact that some of the lower order batsmen decided to change out of their whites. Obviously they had no idea of what the GHK 3rds are capable of...
The collapse started when Smillie tried to up the scoring rate, but could only pick out a deepish cover to depart for a solid 37. It got worse when Ally received a highly dubious LBW decision, the day’s second example of Crow Road umpires doing their batsmen no favours at all. With the rainclouds gathering again, and the pitch having now deteriorated into a mudbath, Hillend were starting to waste time in the hope the match would be abandoned. The pressure was on Umar and Luke to reach the winning line as quickly as possible, but with 4 runs still required, they both got out to ugly swipes and Crow Road were in freefall.
Will came in at No. 8 and was swiftly dispatched for a duck, then Iain was run out as his increasingly agitated captain made a desparate attempt to get on strike. By now, the ‘Fall Of Wickets’ column was starting to resemble an advert for Directory Inquiries, with four having gone down on 118. Thankfully, the spinner dropped a bit short with the next ball, which Rixon spanked over square leg for 3, and after John saw out the rest of the over, Rixon struck the winning run – a drive straight to a fielder, who fortunately failed to manage a direct hit. This was a huge relief to the Crow Road team – not least the No. 11, Liam McDermid, a late call-up for the match, who was by all accounts reduced to a quivering wreck in the dressing room by the prospect of having to come in to bat.
In the end, then, 25 points in the bag, but there’s no doubt that this match highlighted some serious problems that the team must address. An unacceptable level of dropped catches for the second week running, self-destructive umpiring, complacency when we appeared to be cruising to victory and a complete lack of common sense once it started to get tight. Even though the game was won, we’ve got to learn from these mistakes, because if we make them next time, we might not get away with it.
Still, there’s plenty of positives to take as well – not least Luke’s magnificent 7 – and plenty to suggest we’re in for a great derby match at home to the Alps this Saturday.
WDCU Div 5, Glenpark, 06/05/2007
Hillend won toss and elected to bat
Hillend
M Robertson c Mansell b Murray 59
Gerrard c Smillie b Curtis 6
Thomson b Curtis 17
Copeland b Smillie 3
* P Robertson b Curtis 11
Sharman c Mustoe b Curtis 1
# Baum c Smillie b Curtis 1
McDougall c Rixon b Ali 2
Peterson b Curtis 1
McPaul c Rixon b Curtis 0
Daisley not out 9
Extras 11
Total (all out, 26.4 ovs) 121
Curtis 13-1-53-7, Smillie 10-0-51-1, Murray 3-0-14-1,
Ali 0.4-0-2-1
Crow Road
S Alcock lbw b McDougall 10
A Mansell c Copeland b Peterson 35
G Smillie c Gerrard b Copeland 37
# A Mustoe lbw b Thomson 7
L Curtis b Copeland 4
U Ali c P Robertson b Thomson 4
* A Rixon not out 4
W Murray b Copeland 0
I Miller run out 0
J Pulley not out 0
Extras 21
Total (8 wkts, 40.2 ovs) 122
L McDermid did not bat
Sharman 6-0-20-0, McDougall 10-0-25-1, Peterson 5-1-21-1,
McPaul 6-1-17-0, Copeland 8-0-25-3, Thomson 5.2-2-9-2
Crow Road won by 2 wickets
Crow Road 25 pts, Hillend 5 pts
Match Report
Crow Road picked up their first win of the season in nerve-shredding circumstances, surviving a catastrophic batting collapse to edge out Hillend by 2 wickets at a showery Glenpark. After restricting the home side to 121, then cruising to 105-2, it was almost incomprehensible that Crow Road could come so close to defeat, but 30 minutes of brainless batting left the match on a knife edge before Rixon and debutant Jon Pulley finally scrambled the winning single.
The Hillend captain won the toss but somewhat bizarrely offered Rixon the choice of what to do. The home side were promptly inserted in drizzly conditions to face Smillie and Luke Curtis, also playing his first match for the club. Crow Road started uncertainly, with a number of chances going to ground just as they did last week - this is evidently something that needs to be worked on at training. Even when Smillie managed to hang on to a skier in the 5th over, it only brought to the crease a batsman who was clearly a class above any of his team-mates.
The score was racing along, with Smillie going for 27 off 11 balls at one point including a 6 that disappeared into a nearby back garden. Thankfully, Luke made a crucial breakthrough, forcing the No. 3 to play-on for 17, and this completely shifted the balance of power, to the extent that only 4 more boundaries were scored in the remainder of the innings.
Smillie tightened up his line and length and got due reward when he bowled the No.4, and then Luke exploded through the middle order, taking 5 more wickets for 12 runs. Some of these were to excellent balls, though a couple of the Hillend batsmen did themselves no favours by miscuing full tosses to the off-side fielders. In any case, Luke’s superb final analysis of 7-53 is right up there on the list of best-ever innings returns for a GHK bowler.
Towards the end there was also a promising spell from another GHK debutant, Will Murray, which included the wicket of the opener Robertson for a resilient, if slightly fortuitous, 59. Umar also got amongst the wickets, finishing off the innings courtesy of a skier to mid-on.
That left Crow Road chasing a target of 122 and, after a short rain delay, Steve Alcock and Manse strode out to open. Six overs were safely negotiated before the rain came down again, causing a further half-hour interruption, and by the time the match resumed the wicket was starting to resemble a bit of a bog. Manse still played with impressive fluency, hitting one particularly attractive cover drive, before he was caught out by the increasingly slow bounce and mishit a drive to a fielder for 35.
Smillie came in at No. 3 and played with calm assurance, while Steve-o’s somewhat stroke-free innings (10 off 64 balls) was just starting to get going when he was unfortunate to be judged LBW. Ally Mustoe (who had earlier kept very tidily) replaced him and helped guide the score to 105-2 in the 33rd over. Everything looked very comfortable – so comfortable in fact that some of the lower order batsmen decided to change out of their whites. Obviously they had no idea of what the GHK 3rds are capable of...
The collapse started when Smillie tried to up the scoring rate, but could only pick out a deepish cover to depart for a solid 37. It got worse when Ally received a highly dubious LBW decision, the day’s second example of Crow Road umpires doing their batsmen no favours at all. With the rainclouds gathering again, and the pitch having now deteriorated into a mudbath, Hillend were starting to waste time in the hope the match would be abandoned. The pressure was on Umar and Luke to reach the winning line as quickly as possible, but with 4 runs still required, they both got out to ugly swipes and Crow Road were in freefall.
Will came in at No. 8 and was swiftly dispatched for a duck, then Iain was run out as his increasingly agitated captain made a desparate attempt to get on strike. By now, the ‘Fall Of Wickets’ column was starting to resemble an advert for Directory Inquiries, with four having gone down on 118. Thankfully, the spinner dropped a bit short with the next ball, which Rixon spanked over square leg for 3, and after John saw out the rest of the over, Rixon struck the winning run – a drive straight to a fielder, who fortunately failed to manage a direct hit. This was a huge relief to the Crow Road team – not least the No. 11, Liam McDermid, a late call-up for the match, who was by all accounts reduced to a quivering wreck in the dressing room by the prospect of having to come in to bat.
In the end, then, 25 points in the bag, but there’s no doubt that this match highlighted some serious problems that the team must address. An unacceptable level of dropped catches for the second week running, self-destructive umpiring, complacency when we appeared to be cruising to victory and a complete lack of common sense once it started to get tight. Even though the game was won, we’ve got to learn from these mistakes, because if we make them next time, we might not get away with it.
Still, there’s plenty of positives to take as well – not least Luke’s magnificent 7 – and plenty to suggest we’re in for a great derby match at home to the Alps this Saturday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)