Jagex Crunched in Numbers Game

Deloitte 125-6 (Murphy 28*, Shahid 18, N Cooper 4-24, S Morgan 2-11) beat Jagex 100-9 (Colledge 29*, P Morgan 17, Pearson 2-22) by 25 runs

Jagex fell again, respectably short of a relatively gettable target, playing against Deloitte at St Catherines. Deloitte won the toss, with the Jagex fixtures secretary Fardell losing his 10^th consecutive toss in two seasons. Deloitte chose to bat in pleasant looking conditions. The opening batsmen looked very solid, and technical, against the bowling pair of P Morgan (welcome back, Piers!) and Amoraal. Scoring was initially very quick, with the rate threatening to get away from Jagex early on. 5 overs in the signs were ominous, and Deloitte would have been confident of putting 160 plus on the board. Tween helped keep the extras down, and managed a commendable one bye in the whole innings, especially impressive given that some of the bowling was, well, a little on the wayward side. He also hurt his thumb. Diddums.

Amoraal stayed on for his full spell, but wasn’t rewarded with a wicket. S Morgan then entered to bowling attack to replace P Morgan, and what an inspired change it proved to be. Steve bowled imperiously, having shaken off the cobwebs from the previous week. One opener retired, and S Morgan then tied down the other two batsmen. He bowled the remaining opener with an absolute peach, dismissed another for a duck and had quite incredible economy figures of 4 overs, 11 runs conceded and 2 wickets. Fardell came on for a short spell, but didn’t trouble the batsmen with his comedy skipping action.

Lee and Cooper then paired in the bowling at either end. Cooper was the evening’s other standout bowler, consistent line and length coupled with mystery spin proved the undoing of four batsmen in total. One of Cooper’s wickets was partially down to Fardell. The batsman took a step, and middled a thump to deep midwicket. Fardell, leaping like Nacho Libre executing a finishing move, pouched one high to his right. The ball stuck, Jagex cheered, the batsman was incredulous that he was caught to such a good shot. My hand is still hurting as I type this report. The catch spurred Cooper on to further bowling feats of impressiveness, with three batsmen bowled, and one memorable ball turning so much it missed the bat, pad and furniture, and was only just stopped by chirpmeister general Tween behind the stumps.

Deloitte made a concerted effort to target the shorter looking boundary near the tennis courts. I say shorter, as Amoraal was stationed out there for much of the game, and assured us afterwards that it was actually a deceptively long boundary. That might explain the odd four that snuck through, eh Willem? Justin ‘Juzzy’ Edwards came on for one good over at the death, and Deloitte muddled along, but never really accelerated at the end, and finished with a reasonable, but probably gettable total of 125, with Mr Extras down to 18 this week.

Jagex opened again with the untried and untested pair of Jones and Fardell. Fardell did his best Pietersen impression, and got off strike first ball. Jones was then bowled a few balls later by a peach of a delivery. Colledge took up where he left off last week, looking cultured and controlled, with one cover drive, not only looking textbook and being an early contender for shot of the season, but also, well, it was a cover drive. We’re only used to seeing those on telly. Fardell scratched around for 7 before being bowled by the delivery that troubles terrible batsmen up and down the land, the medium paced straight full one on the stumps. Jagex were well behind the rate at this point.

P Morgan and Colledge then came together to create the first partnership of the season, with some slogs being intermingled with decent cricketing shots. With both at the crease things looked hopeful. Sadly Piers skied one, and was caught at deep midwicket. Colledge then retired in hilarious fashion, running five courtesy of some comedic fielding. After that, no-one stuck around to build a partnership. Edwards did his best in failing light, but never really got going. McClarty was sadly run out to a piece of top notch glove-work behind the stumps. Willem looked ok for a spell – although he did managed to hit his own knee with the bat, and wasn’t that keen on cheeky singles – before being bowled by an excellent delivery. S Morgan came to the crease and avoided a golden duck first ball, but secured a regular duck next ball.

Tween strolled out to the crease to join Cooper shortly thereafter. Tween, being ex Deloitte, was roundly greeted on his arrival. He survived the first few balls courtesy of some Eoin Morgan style knee bending and twitching, before stepping out and smacking one for four through midwicket. Sadly he too was run out, attempting an ambitious single, but again only because of a piece of excellent glove-work from his opposite number. Cooper was bowled, leaving Lee and the returning Colledge to finish the innings. Jagex hadn’t really been in the chase since about the 10^th over, with wickets tumbling and no real partnerships, we were always behind the rate. I can genuinely say, I can’t remember a rubbish bowler, or indeed a loose over, from any of the five Deloitte bowlers. It’s very rare to see such consistency. Also, Colledge’s early season average of 50 is possibly a company record.

So a brilliant bowling and fielding performance, including a commendable bowling recovery, wasn’t quite matched by the batting. Deloitte put on some beer and Sainsbury’s sarnies and we were left to rue another defeat in the failing light. One thing we were all looking forward to was the inevitable Jamy Nigri reply to all email, which manages to bring cheer to even the hardest of hearts.

A special word this week, on Jagex’s cheerleaders. Mrs Morgan, and Mrs Amoraal. Both turned up to cheer their chaps on and Mrs Morgan in particular seems to have inspired her man to a spiffing bowling performance. We shall have to invite them along again.