St Lukes v John Fisher–
Saturday 08st July 2006
St Lukes 1st
XI
Ed
Hardwicke
Matthew Cobb
Charlie
Hillman
Michael
Krishna
Vikram
Karl
Quinn
James
Somers
Hemant
Richard
Bent
Adeel
Hassan
Tim Blatt
This
weekend the 1st team travelled to Warlingham to play an
unbeaten John Fisher. The weather for cricket was perfect. At 1pm St Lukes had
9 players ready for a 1.30pm start and by 1.10pm in almost a surreal moment an
apparition of both Hemant and Adeel appeared. And apparition it was not.
Determined not to let the previous weeks be repeated all players were ready for
action in good time. Well done all.
Ed once
again lost the toss and St Lukes were put into bat on a fast true wicket. We
lost Mathew early, which brought Charlie to the wicket. Charlie seemed to be
batting with a cricket stump at times, as he struggled to find the middle of
his bat, but with some well placed edges through the slips the scoreboard
started to tick over. At 1-80 and with Ed and Charlie looking solid, Ed decided
to leave a ball that pitched on off stump and ended up taking middle.
This
started a mini collapse, as Charlie then fell caught behind for 42, Vikram, Carl and James all went in quick succession. Hemant
joined Michael and stopped the flow of wickets. When Hemant was out, Richard
scored a quick and valuable 27. With 2 overs left and
down to the last wicket it was extremely important that the remaining balls
were used. The first of these smashed over mid -off by Adeel for 4. Adeel was
looking good, could this be a cameo knock from the big man ?
No !!!
Unfortunately the shot before had gone to his head, and next ball his head and
bat were pointed towards the clouds as the bowler made a pretty heavy mess of
the stumps.
So St
Lukes were all out for 181. Was this going to been enough ?
After
some tight bowling from Carl in previous matches, the opening bat for John
Fisher took a liking to some short bowling from Carl and dispatched him to all
parts of the ground. Not the start that we wanted. However TB came on and with
tight bowling from himself and Hemant brought the run rate down and St Lukes
back into the match. A couple of sharp but catchable
chances were put down by St Lukes on both openers, and it took a brilliant
piece of fielding from Carl to break the partnership via a run out.
Adeel
also bowled well without luck, and it seemed like it was jus going to be one of
those days.
St Lukes
battled hard but chances were few. This was a day when 4 strike bowlers were
not enough.
Dessie we needed
you today !!!!
The game
was still alive until the 38th over, when TB back into the attack was hit for a
few big shots. They are still looking for the balls. The battle continued into
the 41st over but St Lukes finally succumbed.
Captain
Hardwicke was quoted 'it was good effort, but there are no prizes for effort
when you lose'
If we are
to progress as a club we need our strongest players available. Unfortunately we
were light of a bowler today. There was too much pressure on both the bowlers
utilised and the captain.
We should
never drop our heads and fight until the last ball even if the result is not
going our way.
Although
not easy chances, the old adage 'Catches win Matches'
We must
also bat out the full allotment of over’s, all players in St Lukes can bat, so
there are no excuses really.
Player
of match:
Michael,
showed his captain that he has the right temperament that he can bat higher in
the order.
Catch
of the match;
Can't
even remember if there were any, but Carl and his fielding to effect the runout was superb.
Shot
of the Match: (St Lukes, as John Fisher
players players some blinders)
Adeel,
strong shot over extra cover for 4.
FINALLY....
ask Ed what he got up to on Saturday Night.....