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This was a very exciting game, played in an excellent spirit on both sides, against a very pleasant club and a good bunch of young players.
Cumnor batted first, and both openers - Harry Ackland and Max Mannering from the Under 11s carried their bats, retiring unbeaten on 30 each. Varadh and Fraser weighed in with 11 and 14 respectively via some hefty strokes, and Messrs West, Foley & Sloley generously gave their wickets up for the good of the team, forcing the pace in the last few overs and being respectively caught & bowled, stumped and run out trying to post as big a total as possible.
With a total of 109 both players and spectators felt confident that Cumnor could close out the game, none more so than the Kennington coaching team. I figured that two and more likely three of their players would need to get 30 or so to threaten our total and that did not seem probable.
Oh dear.
We started well. Kennington lost their first three wickets cheaply, Fergal bowling one opener with a vicious leg stump yorker that would have skittled a Lara or a Tendulkar, and Max delivering a fast leg cutter that pitched on leg and straightened to hit off. Both unplayable.
But then Kennington's captain, Higgs hit 30, Symes scored 21. Still not enough. Unfortunately there was another high scorer in the Kennington total whose face we never saw and voice never heard. He scored no boundaries, and got all his runs with 1s and 2s and a solitary 3. His name, as you will probably have guessed, was Extras, and he was the fourth player in the match to score 30. 23 of these were from no balls (6) and wides (17), with 2 leg byes and 5 byes. Kennington got the runs in the 19th over.
Afterwards we talked about what happened. Our thoughts were:
- The sun shone, the ground was beautiful, the match was close and everyone had a great time.
- But.. we could and should have won. Man for man we were better cricketers than Kennington. Easily. However, they won and there are three simple lessons.
- Our running between the wickets was awful. We lost at least 15 runs by ambling the first run when we should be running it hard
- Too many balls were loose and uncontrolled. Not only did we give them 23 no balls and wides, we also gifted them an extra 21 balls to hit!
- The fielding was lacklustre. When we talked about walking in, we did not mean shuffle your feet and look embarrassed like your dad at a disco. We mean walking in with intent, intimidating the batsman, looking for the ball.
Sometimes the best team does not win - sometimes the one that tries hardest wins.
Another impressive contribution from the young players. Special thanks to Harry Bjarnasson and Sorrin, who didn't bat or bowl - which is really tough - but didn't moan. Thanks for making the captain's life bearable.
Man of the match was Harry Ackland. He got his runs quickly, and really looked classy. A very clean striker of the ball, with lovely technique and good timing. Well done!
Thanks all
Enjoy the summer
Michael
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