Sunday 12 August 2007

Crow Road v Hillend, 12/08/2007

Crow Road v Hillend
WDCU Div 5, Old Anniesland, 12/08/2007

Crow Road won toss and elected to field

Hillend
* Robertson b Allen 17
Singh b B Hussain 5
# Baum lbw b Fleming 12
Cahn lbw b Christie 2
Keast c B Hussain b A Hussain 2
Sperling b Fleming 0
Farrell c Christie b A Hussain 0
Terrace b A Hussain 2
Jesus not out 8
McDougall c B Hussain b A Hussain 0
Extras 27
Total (all out, 33.1 ovs) 75

Allen 7-1-14-1, B Hussain 7-1-23-1, Fleming 7-3-16-2,
Christie 5-0-13-1, A Hussain 7.1-3-7-4

Crow Road
# A Mishra not out 58
I Thomson run out 7
G Smillie not out 3
Extras 8
Total (1 wkt, 10.4 ovs) 76
* A Rixon, A Christie, A Hussain, S Alcock, I Miller, A Fleming, B Hussain and E Allen did not bat

Farrell 4-0-12-0, Singh 4-0-44-0, Keast 1.4-1-4-0,
Cahn 1-0-16-0

Crow Road won by 9 wickets
Crow Road 25 pts, Hillend 1 pt

Match Report

After persistent rain put paid to Crow Road’s fixture against Scotindians on Saturday, it was a relief to get some play on a dreary Sunday as Hillend visited Old Anniesland. Showers disrupted play on more than one occasion, the astroturf was in pretty poor condition and the outfield resembled a meadow of wheat, but Crow Road made the best of a bad job and raced to victory over the Greenock side in less than 45 overs playing time.

The toss was all-important and, after tails failed for the Hillend captain, Rixon got the chance to unleash a potent Crow Road attack on the visitors, with Ewan Allen and Billy Hussain heading up a strong quintet of bowlers. The Hillend openers made solid early progress, but the damp astro wicket was causing a number of balls to stay low and before too long Singh was dismissed when a short ball from Billy skidded past his attempted pull and hit the stumps. Moments later a sharp shower forced the players from the field for 15 minutes and, with the first ball after the resumption, Ewan removed the other opener to claim his first senior wicket for GHK. This proved to be the key breakthrough as none of the remaining batsmen were able to get the ball through the damp, overgrown infield and the Hillend run rate dried up completely.

Wickets also continued to tumble – Yoda’s second ball trapped Cahn lbw to make it 42-3 and then Andy Fleming embarked on a spell of 3-3-0-2 which included a number of superb balls, although the two wicket taking deliveries weren’t among them, both under-pitched but keeping low. Adil joined in the carnage when he came on to bowl leg breaks, having Farrell well caught by Yoda in the deep, then turning one past the defences of the Hillend No. 8 to take the score to 55-7. In all, 4 wickets had gone down for 3 runs in 5 overs.

If anyone was going to save Hillend, it surely had to be the next batsman in, listed in the scorebook as ‘Jesus’. He did stick around for a while but was let down by his two remaining disciples, who both found Adil’s flight and accuracy too much to handle and popped up catches to Billy at short cover. With Hillend a player short, this brought the innings to a close at 75, easily the lowest total against Crow Road this season. The conditions were heavily in the favour of the fielding side, but the bowlers still had to maintain a good line to make the most of them, and by and large that’s what they did (Yoda’s exploratory over of spin being the notable exception!).

After the tea break was prolonged by a heavy shower, the ground was wetter than ever as Ashutosh and Stroppy walked out to open the Crow Road innings. The chances of hitting a boundary all along the ground were now nil, which didn’t suit Stroppy’s game at all and reduced him to working singles and the odd 2. At the other end, however, Ashutosh was going ballistic. Seemingly oblivious to the uneven bounce, he survived a couple of early scares to demolish the Hillend bowling attack, negating the problem of long grass by repeatedly launching the ball in the air for 6s or one-bounce 4s.

At one stage, he clouted 35 off just 9 balls as an over from Singh disappeared for 20 and another from Cahn went for 16. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Stroppy was run out when Ashutosh didn’t respond to a call for an easy single, but it didn’t particularly matter as Smillie came in at No. 3 and hit the winning runs soon after. This was his first innings since he broke his finger four weeks ago, and thankfully he came through it without any discomfort.

The star of the show, though, was Ashutosh, who had brought up his first GHK 50 with his fifth 6 and eventually walked off unbeaten on 58 (40 mins, 31 balls, 5x4, 5x6). He scored over 76% of the runs in the Crow Road innings, surely some kind of record, and made a mockery of conditions that had caused problems for every other batsman in the match.

Crow Road’s 4th and easiest win of the season leaves us sitting comfortably in mid-table around the 54% mark. Victory in the last two games of the season could just sneak us into the top four, but this result indicates how much more could be achieved if it we were able to field a decent-strength side every week. None of today’s bowling changes made life any easier for the Hillend batsmen and, had Crow Road lost early wickets, we had regular opening batsmen lined up to come in at Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 7! The only negative was the state of the astro and the outfield. Seeing as the 3s haven’t had a single chance to play on the Old Anniesland square this season, the least we can ask is for the astroturf and its surroundings to be kept in far better condition than what we put up with today.

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