3rd XI close to winning against Chudleigh
Scorecard : http://plymouth.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10467312
Saturday showers saw the start time delayed and the overs reduced to 42, this gave us more time to make the sandwiches and buy the cheese for tea.
Al won the toss and chose to bat and we opened with Andy and Vic. Vic got the scoreboard moving with a couple lusty blows and was then caught at mid-wicket. Andy and Bobby then dug in and took us safely through to the drinks break with good steady batting on a damp track.
Into the last 20 overs the tempo was increased which saw Andy caught for 21, again at mid-wicket. Keith joined Bob who was starting to hit out, some good shots for 4 saw Bob come within 2 of his fifty before he too was caught, at mid-wicket, showing us all the importance of a well paced innings scoring 48 from 62 with 5 boundaries. I joined Keith at 83 for 3 and we wasted little time in speeding up the scoring. Keith hitting 4 fours, including a text book off-drive, in his 23 and myself with 2 fours and a 6 into the car park in my 19 before playing on. Dave joined Keith with the field deep and all the space he needed to work the singles and twos, just what he wanted!
Keith soon holed out, although not to mid-wicket. Chris joined Dave and they played well wasting few balls to put on 43 in even time, although Dave was getting slower and Locky was just loosening up! Dave was bowled near the end for 23 and Danuka lasted 2 balls, leaving Reece and Chris to take us to 187 for 7 in our 42 overs. A good effort in testing batting conditions.
A shower at the end of our innings meant we started to bowl in similar conditions as Chudleigh had, with a wet ball on a greasy surface. Steady, economical bowling from Jack and finally Reece after an indifferent start saw the openers slowly progress towards their target. Solway (right handed) offered some edges and seemed to evade everyone when the ball was hit in the air. Barnes the lefty was particularly severe on anything on his legs and they kept the scoreboard moving. Al took over from Jack and Danuka replaced Reece form the Cumberland Road end.
However not a lot was happening for us, and Al was beginning to be hit for a few runs and at the 20 over stage they had progressed to 55 for none. A hasty mid pitch conference between Dave and Al saw Danuka change ends and myself to bowl from Danuka's end. Fortunately I found a bit of turn and Solway had a waft outside off and nicked one to Chris who took a good catch behind. Danuka bowled with good pace up the hill and we started to build pressure. I bowled the other opener straight after the drinks break. Danuka then swiftly removed Tuckett's (no.3) stumps which brought Chandler to join the skipper Argyle. Both hung around trying to survive for the draw before I bowled Argyle. Danuka again bowled Ripley before he knew what was happening and I followed this in my next over by bowling their keeper round his legs. Rowlands joined Chandler and they then began to take the game away from us. After taking 6 wickets for 21 they batted well to put on 38 for the 7th wicket and take them to 117, within the target of 126 for the draw points. After two good lbw shouts Chandler finally lost patience and tried to hit me back down the ground but was well caught by Keith (eventually!) to give me my fifth wicket.
An inspired piece of captaincy by Al saw him replce Danuka at the Pavillion end. He got Heather out off his third ball, well caught by a diving Reece at mid-off. An imoportant wicket and it brought the young Vittles to crease, so we applied the pressure. With only 3 overs left and 5 to score for the draw Rowlands tried to finish it with one shot but only top edged the ball high into the air above himself. I completed the caught and bowled to bring in the experienced opening bowler Williams. 15 balls to secure the win with no chance of losing, saw about 8 members of PCC 3rd XI crowding the bat, including a helmetted Victor doing sumo wrestling lunges towards the batsman from about 3 feet everytime the ball was hit. Unfortunately 10 & 11 scored 4 more to take them to 125, what they mistakenly believed was their target, and finshed not out so we couldn't quite finish the game.
A good game all round and a good solid team performance in far from ideal conditions, if we keep up this intensity then there will be very few games that won't pan out in the same way.
Feel free to add commnets or anything else if I have missed it out (unlikely!)
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