Saturday 28 July 2007

Home Park v Crow Road, 28/07/2007

Home Park v Crow Road
WDCU Div 5, Dalziel Park, 28/07/2007

Home Park won toss and elected to field

Crow Road
I Thomson lbw b Praveen 0
* A Rixon b Zahid 9
# A Christie c Raheel b Adeel 35
A Kirk c McGlashan b Zahid 5
B Hussain c Adeel b Zahid 13
I Roy b Zahid 0
A Khan b Praveen 11
E Allen b Zahid 1
R Allen c Zahid b Praveen 0
H Livingston not out 1
L McDermid lbw b Praveen 0
Extras 17
Total (all out, 29.3 ovs) 92

Praveen 9.3-3-29-4, Adeel 9-1-25-1, Zahid 11-3-24-5

Home Park
# Juga lbw b Khan 35
Adeel retired not out 15
Cunningham c and b Christie 1
McGlashan not out 5
Hameed c Christie b Rixon 1
Raheel not out 4
Extras 34
Total (3 wkts, 24.5 ovs) 95
Praveen, * Zahid, Dougan, Walid and Baird did not bat

E Allen 7-0-21-0, Hussain 4.5-0-27-0, Christie 8-2-20-1,
Khan 4-1-10-1, Rixon 1-0-2-1

Home Park won by 7 wickets
Home Park 25 pts, Crow Road 2 pts

Match Report

A makeshift Crow Road side travelled to table-topping Home Park more in hope than expectation of victory on Saturday, and duly emerged with a heavy beating. Much of the damage was self-inflicted however, as any hope of defending a paltry total of 92 disappeared amid a smorgasbord of dropped catches, each seemingly more embarrassing than the last. By the time Yoda had demonstrated how it should be done by comfortably pouching two skiers late on, Crow Road had already grassed 8 chances and denied themselves any shot at what would have been a most unlikely triumph.

A midsummer exodus left Rixon struggling to find eleven players for the trip to Motherwell, with regular selection candidates Alcock, Semple, J Fleming, A Fleming, R Mackay, M Hussain, Miller, Tate, G Stewart, Mishra, Colville, Smillie, Bilsland, Reid, Afzal and Iqbal all unavailable for one reason or another (though the latter two did somehow become available after last-minute call-ups to the 2s). Thankfully, after some much-appreciated assistance from Ewan Allen, and after Stroppy and Sausage finally mastered the art of mobile telephony late on Friday night, Crow Road did manage to turn up with a full team and at least avoid a 10-point deduction for conceding the match.

The pitch was mostly hard and grassy with some damp patches and, after Crow Road lost the toss and were put in to bat, it soon became clear that variable bounce would be the main threat. The odd ball was looping up to chest height off a length, but the bounce couldn’t be blamed for Stroppy’s early dismissal as he was caught on the crease and given lbw. Yoda then came in all guns blazing and moved the score past 50 with some carefree blows, including two huge sixes over the leg side. At the other end, Rixon was content to stick around and take the singles, but shortly before the partnership reached 50, he was sent packing as an inswinger beat his attempted drive.

Yoda was soon to follow, miscuing to square leg, and with only 14 overs on the board, Crow Road had already reached the stage where the remaining batting order was looking decidedly fragile. Coming it at No. 4, Sausage looked in decent touch before edging to slip, then Jo played a brief cameo consisting of a textbook forward defensive followed by an ugly swipe to depart for a duck. Billy and Ali applied themselves somewhat better, however, punishing the bad ball to add 25 and take the score to a not-disastrous 89-5 at drinks.

Maybe Home Park slipped something in the batsmens’ Cherryade, or maybe the near-on 15 minute break affected their concentration – either way, the post-drinks session turned into a horror show for Crow Road. The next 21 balls saw 5 wickets go down for the addition of just 3 runs as the scorecard took on a distinctly binary appearance and Crow Road crumbled to 92 all out. First Billy holed out with a straight drive, then Ali succumbed to some variable bounce. Debutant Robert Allen (only recently having turned 13) popped a catch to midwicket and his brother was bowled after a swing-and-a-miss, bringing the unlikely last wicket pair of Hamish Livingston and the multi-sportsman (sadly cricket not being one of them) Liam McDermid together in the middle. While Hamish played a couple of good-looking shots, Liam treated everyone to an innings that rivalled Martin’s football-inspired 7* against Bees for funniest moment of the season. Under instruction not to play at anything missing the stumps, Liam did better than that and didn’t even move a muscle. Standing completely statuesque as the bowler ran up, bowled, and the ball went past him, he also took several seconds to set off for a bye when the ball had in fact almost reached the boundary. He’ll never make an athlete, that boy.

Once Liam had fallen lbw to end the innings, Crow Road headed out into the field with a plan to bowl straight and full and see how the pitch would react. By and large, the bowlers stuck to the plan, though before long their efforts were being hampered by the first of the dropped catches. Ewan was a particularly bad culprit, contributing 3 drops, but he went a long way to making up for it with a fine spell of bowling that improved with every over. At the other end, Billy also produced some good moments, but he made way after 3 overs to give Yoda a shot. This meant that Stroppy donned the keeper attire for the first time ever, and he did a very respectable job, ending the match as one of the few fielders without a drop against his name.

The Home Park openers were making the most of their extra lives and had taken their team more than half way to the target when Ewan reached his 7-over limit as a U18 and was replaced by Ali Khan. Ali quickly settled onto his line and length and was rewarded with the first breakthrough when Juga was trapped lbw. This brought Cunningham to the crease but he was swiftly dispatched after skying a Yoda delivery straight back to the bowler (the second actual wicket which, on another day, could have been the 10th and winning one given the 8 earlier drops). With Adeel and Extras keeping Home Park comfortably on course for victory, however, the only question remaining was whether Crow Road could take a third wicket (hence a second bonus point) before the end of the match. As it turned out they could, courtesy of another skier to Yoda, this time off the occasional round-the-wicket bowling of Rixon, but one over later an emphatic pull to midwicket for 4 confirmed Crow Road’s heaviest defeat of the season.

With only 2 points taken from the match, this loss probably signals the end of any promotion hopes for Crow Road. On the positive side, it was a terrific effort to get a full eleven for this game, and particular thanks must go to Robert, Hamish and Liam for turning up, and to Ewan for his help in recruiting. On the negative side, we had a glimmer of a chance to beat the league leaders today, despite the weakened team, and let it quite literally slip through our fingers. The catching today was a complete embarrassment and there simply can’t be a repetition in any of the five matches we have left. This late in the season, there’s probably a limited amount that can be worked on in training but in the pre-season next spring, it’s essential that we focus more on this side of the game so everyone has the confidence and technique to take more catches and consequently, as the saying tells us, win more matches.