Sunday cricket

After a glorious sunny Saturday of cricket, 1 of 2 Sunday XI’s (led by Graham Smith) arrived to an overcast Kingsfield. Shortly after, our opponents NPL arrived in fashion – hungover and wearing bright pink cricket jumpers. NPL’s skipper won the toss and decided to bat…

A youthful opening bowling pair of Nabeel and Harris quickly showed NPL they were in for a tough game. Nabeel secured a maiden and a wicket maiden (bowled) in his 1st 4 overs, giving NPL no room to get settled. U14s Harris Cathcart began his spell in style by bowling his maths teacher out, securing a double wicket maiden! Some sharp fielding helped the opening pair of bowlers keep NPL down to just 20 runs for 3wkts in the first 8 overs. Next up was Ollie Morjaria with 7 overs of expert spin bowling down the infamous hill. Ollie, very unlucky to not get any wickets, came up against 2 batsmen who were beginning to settle in and hitting boundaries. Zac Collier started his 1st over with a wide that was so quick it was over the boundary in seconds. Disappointed with this, Zac told the umpire to move further back for the rest of the over. It must have done the trick as Zac was back to himself and bowled TWO people out that over. D Cambell was also unfortunate not to get a wicket, with 3 lovely low-scoring overs. Griffiths and Smith both bowled well but with some expensive overs.

With around 10 overs left, the opening bowlers were back to bowl 3 more overs each. Harris once again showed skill beats age/experience, by picking up TWO more maidens. Nabeel finished his spell with some more ferocious fast bowling and managed to pick up 2 more wickets.  Dunmore Sr arrived as the 11th man a few overs in to the game  to put on a showcase of masterclass fielding, also picking up a wicket during his 2 overs at the end of the innings. Honourable fielding mentions go to:

James Flint for putting in a solid shift at his relatively new job of wicket keeper

Zac Collier for spending all the game in the slips, drooping 2 catches

And to Ollie for 2 great catches at mid off

Some great bowling and fielding from the Wick managed to keep NPL to 156 (23 extras) after the allocated 35 overs.

The sun came out just in time for some tea and then the wicks batting innings. The openers Dillon Campbell and Conor Hewitt quickly got off the mark, hitting 4s for breakfast. They were doing so well and didn’t look like conceding any wickets so skipper Graham retired Campbell at 52 runs and Conor at 50 shortly after. I’m sure they would have hit more but giving everyone a good game is the priority. Phil Miles and Zac Collier now had a pretty easy job and managed to bring the game to a tie! NPL, accepting their defeat brought all the fielders inside the ring. A few loud appeals boomed out across the park until the umpire finally gave in and gave Phil out (didn’t seem anywhere near out) for edging it behind. Phil ended on a respectable score of 21.

Then, number 5 batsman Victor Griffiths enters the field full of confidence he can see out the win. 2 balls left in the over, game still tied, number 6 James Flint already unpadding, Victor gets ready to face. Zac tells him to be sensible and see out the 2 balls and not leave them on a hatrick ball. Naturally, Victor cockily ignores this completely and says no I’m gonna try and scoop it. Vic then manages to connect and thinks he’s looped it over short square leg to win the game. But no, much to both teams’ amusement the NPL fielder pulls off the catch of his life – a diving left handed Ben Stokes-esque catch gives Vic the golden duck! Game still tied, Flinty rushing to put his pads on goes on and defends the hatrick ball. Zac then ends the game with style with a nice leg side drive for 4, finishing him on a total of 19. Another great win for the Wick

Top 5 figures:

Nabeel: 3-12 from 7 overs

Harris: 2-20 from 7 overs

Zac: 2-6 from 3 overs

Dillon: a quick cheeky 52

Conor: a quick cheeky 50