Close Match

Sandwiched between a couple of days of wet weather we managed to find a sunny Sunday morning for a game at North Curry. Our matches against North Curry have always been quite close and todays was no different.

Our Captain today was Megan and she did really well - organising her field throughout with very little input from the coaching\umpire.

Our wicket keepers today were Emily and Gemma – both did well in a difficult position – some of our bowlers bowl really quite fast balls and it’s no mean feat to get behind the ball and stop it. You also both did really well to receive the ball from fielders.

We lost the toss again 0 for 2 on that front so far this season and were asked to bat first.

Our opening pair were Megan and Gemma and they started facing a really quick and straight bowler. I thought they both batted really well in the first couple of overs. They watched the ball well and played shots where they could - the bowler’s speed caused the wicket keeper problems on a number of occasions. 5 singles/byes were taken off the first over and 2 byes off the second. We were being positive and loud on the calls which was excellent. In the third and fourth overs we tried to open up bit and get the runs moving and although we did pick up 3 fours in this period we also shipped 3 wickets. Finley from the opposition had a blinding few minutes catching Megan really well and then despite having a stinging hand taking 2 bowled wickets in his next over. Megan and Gemma added 18 runs and 4 byes losing 3 wickets along the way leaving us on 205 after the first pair.

Next up were Harper and Lola. Lola faced the first ball of the pair and immediately looked to attack the bowling despatching the first 2 balls to the boundary for 4 apiece – causing a readjustment of the field. Lola managed to hog the strike finishing the over with a single which, combined with the earlier wide, meant we had taken 11 from the over. Harper did eventually get to bat and did well to block out some good straight deliveries as well as scoring a good 4 amongst her runs. The third over the pair faced was excellent (2 1 4 DOT 1 1) with a mix of strong batting combined with great running to really put the pressure on the fielders. The only problem this pair seemed to face was their footwear and staying on their feet with both falling over and coming up giggling a couple of times each. Lola and Harper put on 21 runs with 8 byes for the loss of no wickets.

Our third pair were Megan Clark and Jess Slade – this pair again played the straight balls really well – I remember 1 crisp straight drive from megan back past the bowler that the opposition umpire was moved to congratulate. A lovely shot – it only bought 1 run but it saved us losing 6 and was really well executed. There was some great calling and running with the pair running all of their runs. As a pair they scored 10 runs along with 2 byes for the loss of 2 wickets.

Monnie and Erin were next to step up. Erin was unlucky with her second ball just playing her shot with a little too much follow through to swipe off her bails – it was the right idea though Erin, trying to work the slightly wide ball down the leg side – if the bat were a little higher or a few cm back and you would have been fine. This was the only wicket this pair lost though and they grew in confidence as they progressed their overs with the runs contribution from each over being 1, 2, 7 & 10. Both girls scored 1 four and four singles. As a pair they scored 16 runs for the loss of 1 wicket.

Our final pair were the Emily’s (Cameron & Bird) - the stronger North Curry bowlers re-appeared for the end of the innings meaning the pace and accuracy was upped a little. Emily C worked the ball well for a 2 on the third ball of the over before nicking a single off the last ball of the over to keep facing. Both Emily’s then traded 1’s before Emily C hit a good 4 to the boundary. We stumbled a little in the last 2 overs Emily C was bowled and Emily B was run out – against any of the other players and I think the run she called for was a shoo in, unfortunately it wasn’t any of the other players and a direct throw lost us the wicket. Between them the pair scored 14 runs with 1 bye for the loss of 2 wickets.
We only lost 7 wickets today – an improvement on last week. I saw some good boundary shots, some good leg side playing just trying to help the ball on it’s way and some great running/slipping between the wickets – lots of clear confident calls as well. We ended up with 255 – possibly a little lower than we could have achieved but a good score and one I thought we could defend.
Megan and Gemma opened the bowling – both produced 2 really good overs between them making the batsmen work hard for their runs. Megans first over was a wicket maiden a fantastic effort Megan – well done. She did concede 1 run in her second over though so we need to work on that ? finishing with 2-1-1-1. Gemma also produced a great 2 overs also taking a wicket and conceding only 6 runs giving figures of 2-0-1-6.

Next up were Lola and Harper – I think Lola has the longest run up of the team and I was glad I wasn’t batting as she delivered the ball with pace and accuracy across both her overs. Harper took a few balls to find her length and line but managed to get everything working correctly and conceded only 3 runs 3 byes across her overs. Some really nice straight deliveries and the pair worked well together.
Lola finished with figures of 2-0-0-11 and Harper 2-0-0-3

Megan and Jessica were next to be thrown the ball. Megan has a really fluent bowling action combing the run up and bowling event really well. Following an early wide she really got on top of the batters - taking a wicket in her first over and only conceding 7 across both overs. Jessica also bowled really well – she was 1 wide ball away from a maiden over in her second over and did not concede many in her first.
Megan came away with figures of 2-0-1-7 and Jess 2-0-0-6.
Erin and Monnie were next in. They both worked hard and kept the extras count really low with only 1 wide and 1 no ball between them – excellent work girls – they were up against a confident pair who were able to work the ball well around the field nicking 1’s and 2’s frequently and even a three on 1 occasion. Monnie’s hard work and consistent delivery paid off with a wicket on the first ball of her last over. A lovely ball taking out the top of the off stop (I think!).
Erin finished with figures of 2-0-0-18 and Monnie with 2-0-1-16.
Finally the Emily’s were handed the ball. At this stage of the game the North Curry batters – particularly the last pair had worked themselves into a really good position being only 4 runs behind – all they needed to do was remain calm and nick singles here and there and they would be home and dry.

Emily Cameron was up first conceding 5 in the over and leaving NC 1 run ahead. Emily Bird was next in – 3 really good dot balls to start the over and then a fantastic bowled wicket – I can’t remember which stump it hit (sorry) – the neutrality and impartiality required for a good umpire had left me and I was too busy internally celebrating to be able to mentally recall the exact stump hit. It was a really good spell of bowling – building up the pressure with the dot balls before striking with the wicket.

The next ball was well met by the batter and rolled away for a certain 1 – unfortunately for the batters it rolled straight to Megan who threw it accurately back to Gemma behind the stumps who was able to whip the bails off and take a second wicket in 2 balls. Really turning the game back in our favour – 2 wickets in the over for 1 run.

North Curry now had to score but Emily C came back on and delivered 6 great balls 4 dots and only 2 singles. Into the final over and it was still all to play for. They only needed seven or so to win and so were keen to run. The balls were still on point but the batters were working them well for singles.

Third ball of the over and another chased ball resulted in yet another run out with some good wicket keeping and fielding again. The final three balls then contained a marvellous piece of calamitous cricket – it seemed as if we could have had 4 run outs and they could have had run umpteen runs – we had the batsmen at both ends at one point before one turned back to try and get home with the ball flying past both the stumps and the fielders on several occasions. From my position close to the stumps I have to admit to not knowing exactly how many runs were eventually scored and had to ask the opposition umpire if they’d actually scored anything.

Emily Cameron finished on figures of 2-0-0-7, Emily Bird had figures of 2-0-1-6 (sorry Emily the run outs don’t count against your bowling figures)

They finished the innings on 246 – giving us a win by 9 runs.

Aside from all the great bowling there were some great fielding moments. Megan Clark was very close to taking a great catch making up good ground to reach the flight of the ball but only just being unable to take the catch – a great effort though Megan. Gemma as well worked really hard on the boundary to stop a 4 with centimetres to spare before throwing the ball back brilliantly to Emily behind the stumps. Emily Cameron as well managed to stop a certain 4 just before the boundary ropes. In both cases the girls had to work really hard to reach the ball and then stop the ball well before turning to throw the ball back.

There was plenty of other good stuff – I think everyone was walking in when we bowled – Steven’s extra laps of the field when you forget on a Wednesday are clearly paying off. Your support of each other was also excellent – it seemed to be non-stop supportive communication throughout – both when we were batting and bowling.

You also did really well whilst waiting to bat – going to warm up as a team and helping the batters get ready. Good Stuff.

Sarah Bird scored today with distractions provided by Zoe – thank you.

The play cricket scoring app was doing great until a 7 ball over at which point it wanted to swap batters all the time.

Apologies if I missed any other highlights - if there is something in particular that stood out to anyone then please let me know and I’ll add it to the report.

Thanks – and see you all on Wednesday – I think we are in the nets so will get a lot of good bowling and batting practice.