Match Report: Woodmansterne vs NECC

Playing Woodmansterne away for a Sunday friendly, it didn't start well for us as we were welcomed by inauspicious weather (wind, rain, clouds, cold temperatures) and a lost toss.
Nevertheless, there was some excitement in the air as this was the first match that we were scoring on the Play-Cricket app.

Naturally, we were asked to bat first and soon discovered that the pitch was spicier than the vindaloo from the Yak and Yeti. Worse than the seam movement was the unpredictable bounce from a good length. Think Sabina Park 1998.
These difficulties meant nothing to our Sunday team's openers for the day, Jez and Sam, as they put on a solid opening stand lasting 14 overs.
This is significant for many reasons not least of which was that they saw off the new ball under very testing conditions and laid a platform for the rest of the innings which is something that we have been missing off late.

Patterson removed both of them on the way to his 5-wicket haul. Jack, batting at 3, had his usual, rock-solid technique on display and was unfazed by the conditions and the skills of the bowlers as he showed his intent with a glorious six over midwicket early in the innings. Patterson got two more wickets to claim the top four of our batting order including last week's hero, Kashif.  He welcomed Kalp to the crease with five slips and a half volley on leg stump. No complaints there. 

Standard Sunday Cordon: 4 Slips, Point & Gully       

After a brief flurry of runs in an effort to put the pressure back on the bowlers, Kalp got out to a loose shot hitting a long hop to not-wide-enough of mid-off. Disciplined bowling from Latif brought three quick wickets leaving us at 80 for 8. Aaron played a crucial knock of 26 to bring us up to 116 before Patterson return to claim him as his fifth; the bounce from the tall bowler played a big part in each of his wickets. Josh supported Aaron very well with an innings full of solid defence and judicious leaves. Aidan joined Josh and they got the score to 124 before a direct hit ruined their attempt at a quick single. For a Sunday friendly team, this score seemed defendable given the curried nature of the pitch; at one stage, their keeper was hit on his baseball style face protector off a medium pacer when standing up to the stumps.

Woodmansterne started their innings well, really well, with 16 off the first over and pretty much cantered through the remainder of their chase thanks to a blistering 75* off 43 balls to Joe Hyatt. He was well supported by James Mulley with 32*.
The only wicket to fall was to Aidan thanks to a brilliant catch at slip from Kashif, continuing his fielding-form from last week. The most noteworthy over was from Jack where he swung the ball back into the batsmen prodigiously.
All of the bowlers were unlucky to not have added to the wickets column with several half-chances not going to hand. On another day, these would have stuck.

Overall, as a batting unit, we defied the old adage of "one brings two", making it "one brings four". There were quite a few starts from the top six that needed to be converted and soft dismissals that could have been avoided.
With the ball, there were more full tosses than we would have liked and with a pitch that helped the bowlers this was more pertinent than would otherwise have been the case.
As a fielding unit, the commitment from the team cannot be faulted.

According to their records on the Play-cricket website, in this Sunday friendly, Woodmansterne fielded six Division 2 players. With that consideration 124 was a respectable effort and it further accentuates what Jez and Sam's achieved at the top of the order.
With the ball we could have been better, but a lot of balls that would have been good enough or even brilliant on any other given Sunday, weren't.
Packing the team with Saturday players may have been the only way that Woodmansterne could put out a Sunday XI but it is difficult to see the point of it. Maybe they are good at their cricket but not at telling which day of the week it is.

Second to Jack's six, the next most graceful presence on the pitch was a deer, as it skipped across the field during the first drinks break.
It was also Division 2.

Unfortunately, we weren't in any position to influence the result of the match so I would like to award Jez and Sam as players of the match for their performance against the new ball in the hands of division two players on a difficult pitch and overcast conditions.

Scorecard