Headline for this week ….. Playing on plastic is not fantastic
Our young and keen team turned up on a relatively sunny evening at Eccleston. Night matches always appear to be more rushed than our usual Sunday morning fixtures as Mums and Dads try to get to get everyone to the game just after they’ve come back from work and also having to hurry through the overs before it becomes too dark and before it gets past Simons bedtime.
Sam S was skipper for this match and did the first important thing and that was to win the toss and he duly invited the opposition to bowl first. The expectations of our team before the game was that an artificial cricket pitch would be like an artificial football pitch i.e. a lot bouncier than a grass pitch. This was our first experience on plastic and how wrong we could be, as the pitch played low and unfortunately caught a lot of our batters out by the ball not quite being in the place we thought it would be. It also caught us out when we came onto bowl as some of the players found it very difficult for their footwear to grip and were at times slipping as they bowled. Not to worry we have to learn how to play on all surfaces whether we like it or not.
And the who can forget….
Jack's first 4 for the club, a lovely back foot shot through the covers,(known as a cover drive) and whilst everyone was shouting “RUN” , Jack stood there knowing he had hit it so well it was easily going for 4. Jack got a bit of a stinger on his back from a “beamer” but he bravely carried on batting. Well done Jack
William C hit three 4’s in his score and put on a great partnership with Sam W .
Will T also did very well for such a young player managing to hit most of the balls he faced (Will was so unlucky with one ball where he actually hit it and then it went onto hit his stumps , (If he had missed hitting it , the ball would have missed the wickets. Not to worry these things happen. Will keep hitting the ball and those runs will come.
William E got the first runs off the bat for us and got us on our way. William can always be relied onto get runs, bowl tightly and field well. A greta example for all the team
Our batting suffered under the different conditions and we only posted a score of 221 At our interval we were reminded of the need to avoid wides and bowl at the stumps and we would get wickets just as they did
And then who can forget……
Jake’s magnificent caught and bowled wicket. The crowd were all on their feet clapping and cheering at such a great piece of skill. Jake was as ever, brilliant in the field , full of energy.
Lewis bowled the best he has ever bowled for the club, getting his arm nice and high and bowling with a smile on his face. Good stuff Lewis , keep up the good work. Wickets will come as you become more accurate.
Amy K is now also bowling a lot more consistent balls, She has added a yard of pace and that is helping with her line and length. Batters struggle to get runs of Amys bowling and I don’t think Amy is far off getting 2-3 wickets in a game (watch this space)
Sam S, leading by example as captain, took the first wicket in his first over for us. This lifted team morale, as at first it looked like we were never going to get one. We then took a few more once we had got this break through.
Woody's keeping was as steady as ever, showing good skill in remembering to get up to the stumps to try and run batters out. He made a valiant effort at a catch and was very unlucky for the ball just to slip from his grasp.
Sam W bowled just as he always does, line and length , giving nothing away and was very unlucky not to take at least one wicket. Sam kept motivating the team throughout the match.
Super sub Isaac came on to field for the injured Jack, and bowled a tidy over and as ever was great at fielding.
Unfortunately their batters , used to the pitch scored a good score and we lost the game.
Things we did really well.
We kept going when the going got tough. At one stage it looked like we could have bowled for a month of Sundays without taking a wicket, but this sometimes happens in cricket then you can get 2-3 more quick wickets and the game suddenly changes
Everyone continues to have a smile on their face at the end of the game.
More of our bowlers are bowling better than they have ever done. Both batting and bowling are difficult things to learn and it is really starting to show that the practices are paying off
Things we could to get better at
Our batters were a bit unlucky with a couple of the dismissals and other batters lost their wickets through the bounce of the ball not being what we are used to, but we need to get used to playing on all different surfaces
We need to try and score more runs , sometimes we hit the ball and we could get a run but we don’t always run for one.
New Longton are the next match on Monday, Bring them on, We stand a really good chance of beating them on 'the Lane'.