Scorecard

Springfield Cricket Club Saturday I v High Roding on Sat 28 May 2016 at 1pm
Springfield Cricket Club Won 162 runs

Match report Following on from the disappointing defeat to Huntingdon the previous week, Springfield welcomed back the in-form Mani Singh and the not-so-in-form JLJ. We once again played host to a much changed High Roding for the second of 4 fixtures in the season.

Brooksy must have won the toss again because we were having a bat… Having commented that the JLJ / CP partnership was now established in my last match report, it appears they will not be destined to open together again, with Mani being thrust up the order. Obviously this was the worst decision of the skipper’s stint at SCC as we all know you have to turn up on time to bat first, so the vintage pairing of Latimir and Clark strode out to the middle.

The pitch looked hard, but JLJ never quite looked settled as Townsend was able to extract a bit of bounce and getting the edge of the bat, only for first (and second) slip to fumble the chance. Scoring was difficult and when JLJ did attempt a drive, he hit it straight to the cover fielder – dropped again! Literally hitting the ball through the covers. Oh, these aren’t the highlights, these were the first two balls of the match! Don’t worry this isn’t a ball by ball report. JLJ eventually was put out of his misery after snicking off to the keeper 2 overs later.

Newly goggled Chris Frost looked in excellent touch before dragging onto his stumps off R Burns, before Mani also briefly impressed until he was bowled by Gallop. Meanwhile Clark looked at home at the other end, steadily compiling his runs with an array of impressive drives and strong running between the wickets. Before long, his nemesis, any spin bowler (or in this case A Burns) came on to dismiss him (via a loopy full toss directed straight to cover point) for a fluent 31. As with a couple of weeks ago, leaving Springfield slightly precariously placed on 95-4.

This left Jimmy at the crease, who had looked in great touch so far, with the grumpiest of the Pollingers. The first job was to rebuild and the two went about the task excellently, barely offering a chance. Jim brought up his 50 with a drive through the offside for 4 and then decided he had had enough, partly due to the fact he was now batting on one leg after smashing his toe. He proceeded to go from 50 to 100 in 20 balls to really turn the screw in Springfield’s favour, eventually falling for an imperious 117.

At the other end, CP had been slowly accumulating, but now with the last few overs approaching he began to let loose, hitting a couple of mighty blows and eventually bringing up his 50, which he looked slightly annoyed about having to raise his bat for. In support, Wasim came and went in the search for quick runs, while Chalky and Sven did a great job of getting Chay back on strike in amongst tidy bowling from Gallop (3-66). The 45th over was smashed by Chay for 20 runs, including the last ball of the innings being reverse swept for 6 to finish on 90*.

After excellent performance from the tea ladies who have hit form early this season and I was glad to be standing at first slip for most of the second innings (déjà vu from 2 weeks ago).

Another new look opening combo, this time the bowlers, with the skipper opting to give Chay a blast with the new ball with Sven from the usual end. Both bowled in a much more controlled way than 2 weeks ago, with a good deal of pace (well – Chay at least). However, it was Sven who got the first wicket, Gallop Jnr snicking off to JLJ in the slips. 3 balls later, Clark finally hit the stumps with a direct hit after all these training sessions and he was clearly over the moon – running off on some kind of Imran Tahir-esque celebration.

However, we still had Holdgate to contend with, and R Burns came in and capitalised on some wayward bowling. CP eventually ran out of steam (after a miserly 4 overs) and Mazza was given the nod but failed to extract the swing he would normally expect… not even any reverse swing! It took him a couple of overs to settle in, but once he found his line and length bowled well, picking up the wickets of R Burns (caught behind) and M Townsend (with his well disguised (lol) off cutter)…

As seems to be routine for SCC now, Sven was followed by Brooksy, who accounted for Holdgate, falling one short of what would have been another deserved half century, with the help of an excellent reflex one handed return catch. This left High Roding on 95-5, and based on the collapse 2 weeks ago the skipper sensed victory was near, keeping himself on a little bit too long. However the middle order offered more resistance this time around with F Burns and S Chambers looking relatively comfortable.

Once Brooks had dismissed F Burns, caught behind, the fun began. S James picked up where he left off last season and dispatched Brooksy into the nets off his 3rd ball. 2 overs later, he deposited the first 3 balls miles over the ropes to the enjoyment of the crowd (and a lot of the fielders…) but the next ball he holed out on the boundary, and the skipper felt he deserved another over.

By this point, Wasim had taken over from Maz (2-31 from 7) and bowled well without much luck, but picked up the wicket of M Gallop… And, after Brooksy had had enough of being smashed around (3-56 off 9), he called an end to his spell and Chalky (yes, Matt Chalk, off of League XI glory… I know, 4th change… unbelievable!) came on at the end to pick up 2 wickets (including Chambers for 38) in no time to finish the match, running out victors by 162 runs. Time for a Mrs. Clark lasagne!

MoM was Simmo for his flawless batting display
DoD was JLJ for getting dropped 3 times in the first 2 balls of the game… (Not sure how that is my fault…)

Springfield Cricket Club Saturday I Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 30w 1b 17lb 
for 7 wickets
49
330		        
James Latimir-Jones ct b. Townsend 7 2
James Clark ct b. A Burns 31 5 1
Chris Frost b b. R Burns 9 1
Manpreet Singh b b. Gallop 14 2 2
Jim Symonds ct b. A Burns 117 11 5 1
Chay Pollinger Not Out  90 10 3 1
Wasim Khalid b b. Gallop 9 1 1
Matt Chalk b b.Gallop 4
Andy Ovel Not Out  0
Lee Brooks   1
Ben Marrion  

High Roding Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Townsend8.0039139.004.88
R Burns10.0067167.006.70
F Burns4.001900.004.75
M Gallop10.0066322.006.60
A Burns7.0064232.009.14
Grant4.003500.008.75
Holdgate2.002100.0010.50

High Roding Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3w 4b 4lb 
for 10 wickets
11
168 (35.1 overs)		     
A Holdgate ct & b. Brooks 49
B Gallop ct Latimir J. b. Ovel 10
Y Grant run out (Clark) 0
R Burns ct Singh b. Marrion 16
M Townsend ct Clark b. Marrion 0
F Burns ct Singh b. Brooks 13
S Chambers ct Pollinger b. Chalk 38
S James ct Symonds b. Brooks 25
M Gallop ct Latimir J. b. Khalid 2
A Wheen Not Out  2
A Burns ct Khalid b. Chalk 2

Springfield Cricket Club Saturday I Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Chay Pollinger4.021700.004.25
Andy Ovel6.0140140.006.67
Ben Marrion7.0131215.504.43
Lee Brooks9.0056318.676.22
Wasim Khalid7.0115115.002.14
Matt Chalk2.11120.500.46