Match Report: NECC vs SW United
This week was the turn of SW United to come down to the lakes to experience the unique cricket ground we have to offer. As the morning of the game arrived there were big concerns about whether we would get a game due to the downpours from Thursday to Saturday night.
Thankfully Chief Exile Groundsman, Mark Arthur, performed a pitch inspection and confirmed that the ground was good to play on. That was one issue sorted!
The remaining challenge was the fact that due to illness we had 2 players pull out on the morning of the game leaving us in a bit of bother. Thankfully, once again Mark came through and after texting everyone and their dog, we managed to get 2 players from our friendly (mostly) rivals Trinity Oxley CC meaning that we at least had a team.
Now to the game, it was agreed that it would be 35 overs each and SW United won the Toss and chose to field first, putting the Exiles into Bat. Luke and Jack went out to the middle and got the Exiles off to a good start. They both started sensibly until Luke decided that he fancied slogging a straight ball over cow corner and was clean bowled. A few balls later Jack hit a lovely drive, unfortunately it was straight to Farhan who took a nice looking catch. We had gone from 23-0 to 24-2 in one over and it looked like the latest batting collapse was under away. However new player Ed and Sam had different ideas and put on a great partnership which involved some really nice shots and some great running. Through Ed and Sam, we put ourselves back in a good position by drinks and something to build on.
The SW United wicket keeper was so impressed by Ed's performance that he decided to kick the stumps before running him out so he could keep watching an Ed masterclass. However, Ed was eventually caught by Uncle Usman, a man who should be making a living by being a Hashim Amla lookalike.
The innings was then brought to a close by our on-loan Trinity Oxley player David, who played some nice shots to get to 18 and was joined by Charlie towards the end of the innings, with the later playing a lovely glancing shot down to third man for 4 that Virat Kohli would be happy with.
The Exiles finishing on 134-6 which on a tough wicket to bat on and against a strong team was a respectable score.
It was then a few of the new players got their first experience of a Mary tea and there was nothing but impressed faces all round. Once most of the players had gone through the many scones it was time for us to field and there was a quiet optimism that we could at least get a close game from our score.
Aidan and new player, Manoj, opened the bowling and Aidan's excellent first over maiden set the tone for the team. The runs were kept tight at the start and with the SW United openers trying to force a run, David ran out opener, Mudassar, with a great direct hit.
After the openers gave us a great start it was time for the first change bowlers: Iain and Jack. Iain then provided a masterclass in spin bowling and started by having the dangerous Usman trapped LBW for 25. Jack chucked a few down short and wide and was punished and he then chose to ignore both keeper, Luke's, and Captain, Charlie's, suggestion of simply aiming at the stumps and bowled another short and wide delivery which this time saw Farhan caught at point by Ed.
This was the sort of wicket which would have bowlers and batsmen consider buying a few scratch cards and a lottery ticket on the way home and after some more superb bowling by Iain, he had another 3 wickets to his name including two well-watched top-edge catches by keeper, Luke.
After drinks we were in a very good position and it was evident that we had a close game on our hands. The number 10 batsmen for SW United came in and finally, after some well-placed boundary hitting and a bit of luck off their edges, they won the game by 2 wickets.
It was not to be this week, however, against a very good team, it was a performance that we should be nothing but proud of: we took them the whole way, could have easily won the game and we were much improved in all aspects from start to finish. A performance to build on towards the end of the season.
Regarding this week's Player of The Match, Iain gets that award after a fine spell that helped put us in a great position and is really coming into his own as another Exile spinner that takes wickets. He also took a very good catch in the deep. However, everyone in the team put in a very good performance.
Now we go onto next week away and Trinity Oxley, where we are faced with playing a couple of our loan players from this week. The main questions going into Trinity Oxley is can we get a team together, will the rain hold off and most of all, will their bar be open this year!
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