RUASCC 109 all out
Dersh 35, Main 18, Ashman 12
Mortimer 48 all out
Waqar 5-6, Ashman 3-13, Main 1-9
RUASCC won by 61 runs
Well this was a bit of a shambles. In a limited overs game things looked pretty
bad when we were bowled out for barely a hundred, but on a wet pitch with
practically no bounce at all we were then comprehensively out-RUASCCed by the
home side who presumably should have known exactly what to expect from the
playing surface.
Probably the less said about much of the batting performance
the better, though it was held together beautifully by Dersh who opened the
innings and handled the conditions better than most. As wickets tumbled around him he played good
cricket shots and kept his cool right up until the moment he ran himself out. His 35 turned out to be the highest score of
the match.
The rest of the RUASCC line-up tried desperately not to get
out to Mortimer’s first change bowler, Barrett, the first female cricketer we’ve
faced since about 2007. Three of them,
it must be said, failed. First Greenhalf
smacked one straight to mid-wicket; then Main, having already taken 14 off the
first five balls of the over, holed out to one of the three men on the leg-side
boundary. Finally Waqar missed a
straight one and was bowled, but fortunately his day was to get better later
on.
The innings looked set to end after barely 20 overs but Withers
and Ashman dug in, adding an average of a run an over for the next half an
hour. As it happened, apart from nudging
the score up to 109 we achieved little more than delaying the tea interval. And what a delicious tea interval it was,
Mortimer have done themselves proud again.
Opening up, Waqar bowled superbly and was denied a wicket
with his very first ball when an LBW appeal was given out by the umpire but
given not out by the batsman who thought it had hit the bat first. This seems to be happening more and more over
the last couple of years and I’m not a fan.
Yes, umpires occasionally make mistakes, but it should be down to the
fielding side to voluntarily withdraw their appeal if something looks wrong, it’s
not the batsman’s place to argue the decision.
I don’t actually care if it hit your bat first or not, that’s not always
the point.
I’m writing this on the same day that Jos Buttler was run out while backing up at the non-striker’s end, an incident that caused
controversy because it was deemed against the “spirit” of the game, not
surprisingly by the people who were disadvantaged by the result of it. Tough luck, it’s in the rules. And again, unless the fielding side decide to
withdraw the appeal there’s no point whining about it, or booing the bowler.
I still wince at the arrogance of Ian Bell insisting that
“the right decision had been made for the good of the game” when he got his
reprieve at Trent Bridge in 2011. It
might have been a nice decision for Ian Bell, and for fans of English cricket,
but what right do the fans have to “react angrily”, boo the Indian players and
seemingly forget that sport is about more than just getting result you want. Put your snivelling sense of entitlement
aside and try to remember there are other people involved who might just feel
differently from you.
One of the things I won’t miss about playing football is the
constant cheating and lying that lots of people were quick to remind me is “all
part of the game”. No it fucking isn’t. Kicking a ball and running around are parts
of the game; deliberately attempting to deceive the officials to gain an unfair
advantage is cheating and that is NOT part of any game I know of. That’s what happens when people place more
importance in the result than they do on enjoyment, fairness and basic human
decency. I don’t want to see cricket,
and especially not Sunday afternoon village cricket, become a place for arguing
with umpires or trying to con your way to a higher score. That would be shit.
Anyway, where the hell was I? Oh yes, Waqar! Waqar bowled superbly, and not just his first
ball, but for the rest of his eight over spell, during which he took five
wickets for only six runs. Admittedly it
was difficult to see exactly what was going on from deep square leg where I was
stationed, but evidently the entire middle order were unable to deal with it.
One of the undoubted match highlights was Waqar’s final ball. Already with four wickets to his name he got
one to bounce and turn and bagged the five-wicket haul before setting off on a
lap of the field in joyful celebration.
Then just a few overs later he was the star again: fielding at square
leg he took a sensational low catch off Dr Ashman and set off practically cartwheeling
all over again.
Ashman too proved difficult to get away and he fully
deserved excellent figures of 3-13.
Eagle took an important catch at mid-on to end one potentially dangerous
partnership and Main finished things off taking a catch off his own bowling to
finally dismiss the opening batsman who’d scored 32 out of the home side’s
total of 48.
Two wins in a row for RUASCC and a nice early finish saw us
across the road to the pub.
RUASCC Man of the
Match: Waqar, even though he was
bowled out by a girl.
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