Linacre vs Worcester II, June 14 2005
Summary: We won by 31 runs.
The team: with exam pressures taking their toll, we were without both Jeremy and Asif, and a parental visit kept Jason out of the side. Back, however, came Chris Higham, Tim Rayden and Dan Woolaston. This was probably the strongest Linacre XI ever to take the field, and it needed to be: Worcester II had won all their matches to date and, like us, were itching to take the league title by winning the final game of the season. Their side featured at least 3 1st XI regulars, but thankfully none of their Tics or Blues players (had Nick Hillyard been available, I would not have been so restrained!)
The report:
We were, typically, a bit late to the ground. I arrived to find them cooking up a barbeque on the pavillion steps, and they were impatient to take their (now nicely charred) meat products onto the field. As you all know by now, I like to chase totals, and I was desperate not to be made to bat by default. I stubbonly stood my ground, insisted on the toss, and lost - we were made to bat first. It was a very overcast day with bad light expected later, although the match was reduced to 20 overs. The light did get a bit gloomy later, especially because (not that I’m one to criticise much) they didn’t half take their time getting through their overs [apologies to any Worcester people who might be reading this, but it’s true!].
So, for only the second time this season, we batted first. We got off to a pretty good start: after a maiden first over (I tried! I just kept hitting it to square leg, that’s all) we were 38 without loss after 6, and the opening partnership chugged along nicely until Russell hit a skier to mid-off. Unfortunately, we soon lost four wickets in about six balls: I slogged a slow half-tracker from their leg-spinner straight to mid-wicket, and then Adam did exactly the same with his first ball, Dan was bowled, and Chris was LBW to one that kept low. Thankfully, Tim and Andy came in and steadied the ship, sharing a partnership of 49 runs in seven overs with some beautiful hitting. After Tim was caught, some strategic hard-hitting from Stuart, Saranya, and Richard helped the score on to 132-9 from 20 overs. Andy finished not out on 40, a fantastic and well paced knock.
132 was a good score, although not an impossible one by any means. But I had a plan! Given the difficulty we’d had hitting their spinners, I decided to open the bowling with spin, and me and Chris had a paper-scissors-stone game to decide who that would be. Chris won, thankfully, and I was deterred from any future bowling by a team rebellion! It worked fairly well, with our first few overs keeping them below the run-rate, and the normal incongruities of the Corpus pitch picking up some wickets - a special mention goes to Saranya’s inspired stumping from Rob’s bowling. Thereafter, Tim and Andy kept them pinned down, and they kept on losing wickets and falling further behind the run-rate. By the time Adam came on to bowl the 18th over, they needed about 35 from three overs with 2 wickets in hand. I was still rather nervous, but Stuart caught an absolute beauty in the deep, especially given the fading light, and Saranya held on to a nick behind and it was all over!
This probably will be the last game of the season, and while I’ll wait for official confirmation before I know the league result, I think everyone should give themsleves a pat on the back. This was our toughest game by a long way. Worcester II were all decent cricketers, they wanted to win the league and knew they had to beat us to do it, and they’d won six on the trot before they met us - and we beat them. While the game was a bit tighter than the final score suggests, it was still a brilliant performance all round!