IBMSHCC vs Droxford
I'd forgotten what this ground was like and also how to get there, evidently, as I got a bit lost on the way there ;) However, I found it eventually and was greeted by a similar sight from our opposition as we'd experienced the week before ... i.e. people busy preparing the pitch just before the game! Their pitch was in fact more grassy than ours had been! *haha* Definitely a wicket to bowl first on should I be lucky enough to win the toss!
When the opposition captain finally arrived, we marched out to the middle to do the toss and I managed to win that and immediately chose to bowl, with Tatie opening up and Taddy at the other end.
Tatie opened up with a maiden and Taddy then followed that up with a wicket maiden, bowling their number 2 batsman with the final ball of the over. Two further maidens followed and they where 0-1 after 4 overs!!
Tatie then conceded a four of his third over but Taddy cleaned up their number 3 batsman with another bowled in his 3rd over. 4-2 after 6 overs! Tatie conceded a few off his next 3 overs but Taddy was on fire and bowled a further 2 maidens, finishing his spell with figures of 5 over 5 Maidens 0 runs 2 wickets!!
Kev and Deano came on to replace the two openers and whilst bowling relatively tightly, were not getting any real hint of getting a wicket. After 23 overs, they were on 64-2 and the partnership was going well.
I planned to turn to a joint spin attack of Kunal and Mark Cross but Mark didn't seem keen so I came on to bowl instead. Kunal was struggling a little and I wasn't really getting anywhere in my first 3 overs and they'd got to 107-2 after 29 overs, so I brought Taddy back on to replace Kunal.
This brought immediate results as he bowled their opening batsman for a fine 39 ... I think it was the first ball he'd faced from Taddy and a swish saw middle stump rocking back! Sadly, a misfield between me and Phil saw the first run conceded from Taddy in that same over.
However, I think we'd broken the back of the team because in my next over, I took two wickets, including their number 4 bat who skied my slower ball straight in the air and John took the catch with the gloves. A fine knock of 59 had come to an end. The 2nd wicket came via a fine catch at slip by Shripal and they were now 110-5.
Taddy then bowled another wicket maiden cleaning up their number 5 batsman for 1. I then took another 2 wickets in my next over, courtesy of an LBW and a clean bowled. They were now 112-8 and both Taddy and I were on the verge of bowling jugs!
Taddy started his over in usual tight fashion but took a wicket with his 3rd ball, via an LBW, their number 9 batsman falling for 1. Cue much celebration of a jug of beer on the horizon and then much discussion saying that he wasn't allowed to get another as then I couldn't get a jug! Sadly (or happily, depending on how you look at it) the number 11 lasted just 2 balls, seeing the stumps fly and the innings over on 112 all out.
Taddy finished with the amazing figures of 7.5 overs 6 maidens 1 run 6 wickets and Droxford had gone from 107-2 to 112 all out, which, by all accounts, is a collapse of biblical status! I'd finished with figures of 5 overs 0 maidens 15 runs 4 wickets, so I was rather pleased with that too!
Other interesting points from the innings :
- Droxford had 6 ducks!
- Droxford only had 2 runs off the bat if you take out their two main scorers from the equation
- The last 8 wickets fell in the space of 29 balls a and 23 minutes for just 5 runs.
- The partnerships in the innings were 0, 4, 103, 2, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0
Anyways ... after an extremely nice tea (courtesy of the local pub and including warn onion bhajis and potato things) I sent John and Phil out to open the batting. They shared a nice opening partnership of 44 before John miss the straight one and was bowled. Shripal went in next and he and Phil saw us home in 31.3 overs with the game finishing via a 6 hit from Shripal! Phil finished on a fine 70 not out and Shripal on 20 not out. Amusingly, Phil asked if he should retire on getting to 50 ... cue much amusement from the people on the sidelines, hehe! Although I did feel a bit guilty afterwards as neither Ray nor Mark got to bat or bowl :S Still, this means they'll get bumped up the order the next time they play :)
So, another fine win, this time by 9 wickets and that sees me with 3 wins out of 3 so far as captain. This surely won't last ?!?! I'm not available next weekend though, so I shall have to entrust the team to someone else ... hopefully Foz will be back to do it as we'll need a strong team against Goodwood.