Match
reports
| Players
and Jesters Cricket Club - Home 01/06/08 |
Scorecard |
Harpenden Cavaliers 124 ao (40.1 ovs)
Players & Jesters 125/8 (40 ovs)
After a comfortable victory against Essenden in his first
game as Cavs captain, skipper Ben Rankin felt confident
that his line-up for the clash with the Players & Jesters
would be strong enough to secure another win.
Having lost the toss and been inserted, Rankin - ever the
innovator - pulled a major tactical surprise by giving regular
number 10 Tim Foster the chance to open. “The lad’s
got something about him” said the skipper “and
I just felt that he needs an arm round the shoulder, a pat
on the bum and the confidence to show what he’s made
of.” While eyebrows were raised in the press box,
Foster rose to the challenge and produced something of a
batting masterclass, on one of the most bowler-friendly
green-tops the Cavs can ever have played on.
Foster and opening partner Paul Wise set about building
a platform in watchful style. The ball wasn’t coming
on to the bat, and the long outfield meant that boundaries
were few and far between. The batsmen, correctly, weren’t
too concerned with a run-rate of little more than 3 an over,
apparently confident that a strong Cavs middle order would
be able to build on their foundations against invariably
unchallenging P&Js change bowling. When both openers
were eventually dismissed with the score approaching 80
and 18 overs left, they would have felt that their jobs
were done and that 5 an over from thereon was eminently
attainable and would present a very defendable target.
However, that wasn’t allowing for a P&Js ringer
producing a miserly spell of 3 for 11 off his eight overs,
nor for the middle-order powerhouse trio of Jim Handford,
Simon Foster and Todd Baines scoring just 7 runs between
them. Only Lance Boyd-Clark offered some resistance, but
his dismissal for 17, closely followed by the calamitous
run-out of big-hitting club captain Fraser Tant for 8, was
the beginning of the end. David Best, Ben Rankin, Kevin
Moxham and Tim Firmin managed a combined 5 runs, leaving
the Cavaliers all out for 124 – defendable but perhaps
25 runs short.
The P&Js found batting as challenging as the Cavaliers.
Handford and Boyd-Clark opened the bowling for Cavs and
kept runs to a minimum, picking up a wicket apiece and giving
little away. There was to be no let up, with Tant’s
spell of 3 for 12 off 8 overs, including a fine caught and
bowled, leaving the P&Js teetering at 50 for 5. Firmin
managed to extract some bounce from a lifeless pitch, while
the flight and guile of Best kept the batsmen guessing.
A fine run-out from the deep by Baines and immaculate keeping
by Moxham meant that batsmen had to graft very hard for
their runs. The P&Js were effectively down to ten men,
with an injured player watching from the boundary. With
just 5 runs or two wickets needed for victory, Rankin gambled
and brought his off-spin into the attack. A wicket with
his first ball meant that whoever blinked first would win.
Two dot balls kept the pressure high, before a lofty blow
back over the bowler’s head deprived the Cavs of a
well-earned victory.
“Gutted to lose that one” commented man-of-the-match
Foster. “Yeah, it’s nice to get a chance at
the top of the order, and with all-time Cavs leading scorer
Jay Wise hanging up his bat, I hope I’ve shown the
skipper that I’m a genuine all-rounder and the man
to fill his size 11s.”
We’ll find out when the Cavs host the Chain Gang
on 22 June…
Scorecard
