S.Anselm’s 130-5 dec (35 overs) Andrew C 37, Ollie R 31*, Alex W 31* Birkenhead 69-9 (20 overs) Elliot T 3/19, Edward S 3/23
Two overs before we declared we were 113-5 ... I thought of Birkdale yesterday (when they declared on 117 and we won!) and I also took on board the fact that Birkenhead have reached the AJIS 20/20 final this year (Association of Junior Independent Schools in the North West, founded by my father, when head of BPS in 1987) where they have regularly reached well over 100 in 20 overs. They play Merchant Taylor’s, Crosby, at King’s Chester on Tuesday.
A declaration looked very unlikely as we were inserted on a surprisingly damp wicket (we were playing on the U18 1st XI square) and struggled to lay bat on ball. Edward S gloved his first ball down the legside and Theo H and Andrew C were completely scoreless. This is no exaggeration whatsoever! We only scored from 2 of the first 71 balls bowled in the match! The very good Birkenhead seamers, bowling a good pace, bowled ball after ball six inches outside the off stump and we defended the ball, left the ball, tried to score (they had a ring of fielders saving singles), played and missed ... In the 13th over, Andrew C scored 14 runs and we were on our way! Theo H finally gave a simple return catch to the bowler but Andrew C kept going. There was a lack of footwork, but this was very clean, aerial hitting into gaps in the outfield. It was refreshingly pleasing! An excellent return catch saw his dismissal and Elliot T lasted four overs for a single. Ollie R could not find the middle of the bat at all as he poked around for singles but the moment of the match for me was Lewis H’s superb cover drive for four off his first ball. What a shot! You may have to wait until 2011 for a better batting average, but you’ve learnt so much this year. Unfortunately seven balls later you tried to repeat the shot and gave a catch to cover. 73-5 and the match was back in the balance, but Alex W played easily his most impressive innings for the school. Cricket is a bizarre game: how players can be in and out of form, but this was Alex at his best. The driving through the offside was ever so well timed and there were some legside shots too. Your 5th boundary brought up the 50 partnership with Ollie R who was happy to get a ‘red inker’ as the Australians would say ...
Birkenhead needed six and a half runs an over to win (and I was happy that it wasn’t 114 to win in 23 overs instead at less than 5 an over!). Edward S took a wicket in his first over as the ball turned prodigiously but bounced a second time in the crease. Ollie R took a good catch moving to his left at midwicket but Mills joined Bainbridge in a partnership scored at a rate which might bring Birkenhead close. Fortunately, Bainbridge tried to force Edward S off the back foot and Elliot T took an important catch and when Corran (son of their member of staff who was a contemporary of mine at school) was bowled first ball as he prodded forward to Ollie R there was only one team in with a chance of winning the match. Mills departed and we had an outside chance. Unfortunately Shillinglaw played very well, with some support from Martin and Griffiths so that we only took one wicket in 8 overs at this stage. Bertie W also extracted some turn, but, starting too straight, the ball turned down the legside. Alex W, however, was on absolutely top form (to go along with his batting). Quick and accurate! There were only six minutes left (13 balls) and we still needed to take four wickets to win. Birkenhead did have some good batsmen lower down the order (i.e. they changed their order round) but in a frenzy of nervous defensive pushes with fielders swarming around the bat, we took three wickets in five balls as Elliot T took three wickets in an innings for the fifth match in six. We had eight balls to take the final wicket, but Birkenhead were resolute. Alex W had a wonderful match, but Andrew C takes the man of the match award for changing the character of the game with his innings.
JMHF
Posted on
Sat, July 3, 2010
by MAC