Middlesex v Surrey (Lords) – 29.4.11

It was decided several months ago that on the 29th of April a small group of us would get up early in the morning, pack a picnic and catch a train into London to celebrate the wedding of Kate and William by watching some cricket at Lord’s.

I’m not particularly anti-Royal but there are many things I would rather do than watch a wedding. Cleaning the fridge is one. That said, a lot of other people seem to think it’s all jolly wonderful and that’s great. Popular opinion suggests that most men would like to give one to a young lady named Pippa but that’s probably as much information as I need. Incidentally, I do find it odd when people say the wedding makes them proud to be British, but then I tend to agree with George Bernard Shaw: “patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.” So Prince William got married, should that make me proud to be a man with rapidly thinning hair?

So regardless of all that, I do believe that when circumstances give you a Friday off work it is important to spend the day doing something you enjoy, and watching the third day of a county cricket game with Dr Andy and the other Dr Andy seemed to fit the bill.

Unfortunately for us the match wasn’t set up very well. Having allowed Middlesex to amass 445 in the first innings, Surrey were bowled out for just 203 in 56 overs on Thursday afternoon. Following on, they had lost another two wickets (Brown and De Bruyn were the unlucky men dismissed twice in one day) and at the start of play they still needed 208 runs just to make Middlesex bat again.

Now, I must confess that the lovely Mrs Keiwit finds cricket rather boring, and after the two sessions I saw today it is difficult to argue otherwise. Surrey began the day in a dreadful position, reached lunch in a hopeless position and failed to survive until tea – losing by an innings and 42 runs. At no stage was it dramatic or exciting, there were no moments of individual brilliance and the power never shifted away from the bowling side. It was never more than pleasantly engaging - something to focus on while the two-litre bottle of “diet coke” slipped down all too easily.

Opening batsman Gary Wilson began the day on 11 not out, with occasional England wicketkeeper Steven Davies on 20. Both had been dismissed for ducks in the first innings and both seemed to be approaching the second dig with a fair degree of caution – as would I if I saw 6’8” Steven Finn steaming in towards me! At the other end West Indian fast bowler Corey Collymore caused all sorts of trouble, beating the bat on numerous occasions. Runs were hard to come by but neither bowler forced a breakthrough in that opening spell.

It was the second bowling change that brought the day’s first wicket: 23-year-old Toby Roland-Jones may have seemed like a less frightening prospect but he immediately found the edge of Wilson’s bat to end his 83-ball resistance. And 73-3 soon became 73-4 as Surrey skipper Hamilton-Brown went for a duck. Surrey’s second innings was heading the same way as the first.

Now, I don’t favour either of the two sides and I just wanted to see as much cricket as possible, so naturally I was supporting the Surrey batsmen, willing them to stick around and make a few runs. Davies passed fifty and looked solid, but all the way through he seemed to be the only one up for the fight - one after another his teammates reached double figures then gave their wicket away – Maynard 11, Batty 17, Jordan 22, Arafat 16 – all stayed in long enough to get a look at the bowling but none ever quite settled.

I was particularly disappointed when Chris Jordan got out. He’d faced 47 balls and hit four boundaries (including one superb straight drive) before chasing a wide one and edging to the keeper. Come on boy, you’ve got the talent, you’ve done the hard bit, now build an innings!

After Jordan went, Davies seemed to realise his chances of reaching a century were slipping away fast. He clipped one delightful six over mid-wicket off spinner Ollie Rayner and pulled Dexter for four in the next over, but having reached 94 he perhaps got carried away and played onto his stumps, the eighth wicket to fall.

It wasn’t long before Arafat edged to slip to give Roland-Jones his third wicket and leave Surrey 200-9. With four balls left before tea numbers ten and eleven met at the crease, Surrey still needed 42 to make Middlesex bat again and there was still the fourth day to think about. As the two men met in the middle, how do you think the conversation went?

A) Let’s just see out the over.
B) If we take this ten runs at a time we can make this annoying for them.
C) Just have a swing mate – we’ll be in the pub by five.

The next delivery was short and Dernbach tried to hook it, missing the ball completely. Next up he tried the same again, made contact but spooned it straight to gully and the match was over. So, option C it was then. I don’t suppose they really had a choice. What were they ever going to achieve? There was nothing left to fight for, so the young man had a swing. I was really hoping cricket would be the winner, but in the end, inevitably, it was Middlesex.

When I got home this evening I turned on the TV and was met with pictures of the Royal couple kissing on a balcony. I instantly turned over to the Indian Premier League because, frankly, even the worst kind of cricket is still better than a Royal Wedding.

Farley Hill (A) - 24.4.11

Farley Hill 175-8
Carpenter 2-24, Withers 2-25, Stewart 2-29, Zia 2-54

RUASCC 177-5
Eagle 85 not out, Dersh 21

RUASCC won by 5 wickets.

A hot, sunny Sunday afternoon in Farley Hill provided the perfect setting for RUASCC’s first game of the 2011 season. And when Tranter, incredibly playing in his 700th game for the club, did the unthinkable and actually won the toss we knew it was going to be a good day.

In the end it was a comfortable win in which opening batsman Andy Eagle picked up where he left off last season. Zia bowled a typical 18-over spell, the wickets were shared between the bowlers, only three catches were put down and there were no major fights – all things that point to a good afternoon’s work for RUASCC.

Withers and Zia opened the bowling with good support from the fielders. Withers himself showed commendable early-season keenness making a full-length diving stop on the fine leg boundary before Dr Ashman did likewise in the gully, creating a tremor so massive it forced a butterfly to flap its wings on the other side of the world.

Withers picked up the first two wickets (one bowled, one caught by Dersh at cover) and would have skittled out the top three had Carpenter clung onto a sharp chance at first slip. The spill did not prove costly, however, as Zia trapped Blake lbw for 23 in the very next over. Farley Hill had ambled to 51-3 after 19 overs when Withers (2-25) was replaced by Carpenter.

Carpenter was driven for four and six in his second over but then managed to take a wicket with his worst ball of the day - a full toss on leg stump was somehow skewed high into the air towards Withers at mid-off who took the catch despite having ample time to reflect upon that chance that Carpenter spilled at slip. The home side upped the run rate to reach 100 in the 28th over but Zia bagged his second wicket, sneaking one through to hit leg stump, and Carpenter (2-24) earned a successful lbw appeal to reign things in a bit.

Pensioner Ken Stewart survived another long, cold winter and he came on to bowl his wily left arm things, occasionally dropping too short and getting heaved away to cow corner by Ditchburn. The Farley captain never fails to reach fifty in this fixture but in a shocking act of jug-avoidance he retired, seemingly unhurt, on 48. Success then came for Stewart (2-29) as he clean-bowled a dancing left-hander as the sloggers tried to hit out. The final wicket to fall came thanks to a comfortably taken catch at long on by Carpenter who by this time had washed the butter off.

Zia (2-54) bowled 18 overs almost unchanged from one end but there was still time for Tranter to bowl the final over and the skipper didn’t disappoint. He certainly didn’t disappoint the home side who got an extra ten runs out of it. 175-8 declared.

TEA - RUASCC need 176 to win

Farley Hill’s opening bowlers were tall and quick but not always accurate and RUASCC were 14-0 before the first run came off the bat, largely thanks to a novice wicketkeeper standing half a mile behind the stumps. Extras were so dominant that the opening partnership had put on 43 when Ward was bowled for just 6.

As Eagle settled in for the long haul, both Dip Patel and Chan Malde were dismissed without scoring. Dip’s first attacking stroke looped up to mid-off, and Chan saw two of his stumps uprooted by a ball that he insisted didn’t move in the air and definitely didn’t beat him for pace. In fact, we understand that the delivery had absolutely nothing whatsoever to recommend it.

At this point RUASCC were 60-3 and in need of a cool head and some solid technique to recover the situation. We had a jolly good look around but couldn’t seem to find either of those things so instead we sent Dersh Patel to join Eagle in the middle. Fortunately this seemed to do the trick and the pair set about building a partnership - with 20 overs remaining RUASCC were 72-3 needing 104 to win.

Eagle used his feet well and found the offside boundary on several occasions and it was another low full toss from Ali which gave him the chance to drive another four to bring up his fifty. Having put on 70 the partnership came to an end when Dersh (21) found the only man on the long off boundary. 130-4.

Carpenter added 13 runs in a fifth wicket stand of 28 (during which time Eagle swept a six into the trees) before trying to cut a delivery from the off-spinner Ali that just came back in and bowled him. Then, just to keep things interesting, with only 18 runs needed for victory Zia and Eagle’s running between the wickets took the form of two men auditioning for the lead roles in a new farcical comedy:

And There’s No Run
Scene 1 – Ext. Farley Hill Cricket Ground.

(Andy Eagle dabs the ball into the offside and sets off briskly for a single.)

AE: Yes, yes, yes!
Zia: (Motionless) No Andy, we can’t. I’m afraid it’s just too dangerous.
AE: But I want to!
Zia: I know Andy, I know. But, you see… well, it’s complicated.
AE: Forget the fielders, forget all about them. This is just about you and me, and I know we can make it work.
Zia: No Andy. The time just isn’t right for us. Go back home, you’ll be safe there.
AE: Shit.

(Andy, halfway down the track, turns with the grace of a two-day old giraffe and just about makes his ground).

With both batsmen having got that out of their system, Eagle hit the first two balls of the next over for four to bring RUASCC to within touching distance of the target and Zia, taking a guard three yards out his crease to avoid an lbw decision, spanked an on drive for four to seal the win by five wickets with two and a half overs to spare. Eagle ended just one run shy of his highest ever score with 85 not out. A great start to the season.

Quote of the Day: “I wouldn’t applaud an Eagle fifty half as much as I would applaud Eagle running himself out on 49” – Dr Ashman.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Andy Eagle for his match-winning 85 not out.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle, Dip (wkt), Chan, Dersh, Carpenter, Zia, Tranter (capt), Stewart, Ashman, Withers

Keiwit Stat Fact: My distinctly average 2-25 from nine overs would have been my second-best figures of the whole 2010 season.

Pre-Season 2011 - Nets

The 2011 cricket season is almost upon us and RUASCC, not well known for putting in too many hours of practice, had an almost unprecedented three weeks of net sessions booked in the run up to the first game at Farley Hill on Easter Sunday. Today was the final session and also the first one from which I seem to have emerged unscathed. After week one everything hurt – a group of muscles from my legs and torso felt moved to get together and write a letter of complaint to The Times. Then while batting last week I reacted too slowly to a bouncer from Andy Greenhalf and wore it on the chin, giving me a lovely deep, red seam print and discomfort while chewing for several days. Today, I feel great.

Regular readers of the Keiwit blog will know that 2010 was not a great season for me personally; I averaged less than one wicket per match and struggled to put any pressure on batsmen, bowling very few maidens and far too many four-balls. I ended up bowling more and more defensively, not expecting to take wickets but simply hoping to bowl dot-balls. Batsmen seemed to sense this and go on the attack. In a bid to put this right I did something I’ve never actually done before: I started reading a coaching manual. Specifically I started reading “The Art and Science of Cricket” by the late Bob Woolmer and immediately turned to the chapter on bowling to see what he had to say.

“No, no, no!” screams Woolmer from beyond the grave. “Your grip’s all wrong - you’re holding the ball too tightly.”
“Ah,” I say, not quite knowing where to direct my response. “I did wonder. But I hold it tightly because I can’t control the ball very well. I had problems last year bowling a consistent line, and I couldn’t seem to get any pace.”
Bob shakes his head and taps an area on page 251:

“The ball should rest on the last joints of the fingers with a small gap between it and the cupped palm of the hand. This space is very important – if you grip the ball too tightly, or wedge it too deep in your fingers, it will leave your hand too slowly, and you are also likely to lose a great deal of control over it.”

“Oh. That would explain it,” I say, looking down at the floor.
The point is that while a smooth run-up and bowling action are important to the delivery, if you don’t understand and fully utilise the wrists and fingers you lose out on the “subtler, more dangerous variations.” In short, you’re not going to take many wickets.

For example, I thought my stock ball was the pitched-up outswinger on or just outside off-stump – in the past I’ve had success with it, beating the bat regularly and seeing lots of mis-timed drives edged to slip or chipped to the covers. But last season I couldn’t find that consistent line and length outside off-stump and the ball was barely moving off a straight line. Woolmer quotes one of the greatest bowlers of all time, Dennis Lillee:

“The most critical part of swing bowling is the way you let the ball go from the hand. If this is not done with a high degree of precision, the ball either will not swing at all or will swing only a little and too early in its flight to be of any great danger to the batsman… The ball is sent away with a natural under-spin, and I believe the more under-spin imparted on the ball the later it will swing.”

So immediately I can see where there are flaws in my technique, and I’ve set about trying to correct these in the nets. One thing I haven’t quite figured out yet is how I used to be able to bowl tight, economical overs, swing the ball and take wickets without knowing what I have recently learned.

In fact, when trying to bowl outswingers in 2010, just about the only thing I was doing right (according to Woolmer) was to hold the ball with the rough side facing the covers.

“The side that is smooth and shiny will present less resistance to the air than the rough side: the resulting low pressure on that side of the ball will pull it in that direction and away from the high pressure. This manifests itself as swing.”

I mention this because, in the pub after one of our net sessions, we couldn’t even agree how to bowl an outswinger – some thought it should be the shiny side that faces towards the covers. Admittedly one of them was Dr Ashman who, it must be said, wobbles the ball about more than anyone at the club, so if The Good Doctor wants to take it up with Mr Woolmer I’ll stay out of it.

So, how did all this new-found knowledge fair in the nets? Actually, I think it’s gone pretty well. Several people remarked that the ball was coming on a lot quicker and I’ve found it much easier to put the ball on a good length (typically I err towards the half-volley). This means that when I have bowled people out (and I have!) the ball’s been clipping the top of off-stump – exactly where I’ve been aiming for.

One thing I haven’t really been able to test is the swing. Picking up a twelve-year-old ball indoors on a concrete pitch and getting it to deviate at all can be a hopeless task so I’ve been concentrating on line, length and pace (including a proper slower ball, also using the wrist) and eagerly anticipating the first game outdoors with a new ball and a good cloud cover. With a much better idea of what I should be doing and how I’m going to take wickets, I’m heading into this season full of optimism.