Jagex Demolish Sheds

Jagex 129-4 (Jones 25*, Lamble 25*, Hanglin 2-17) beat Eversheds 118 (Hanglin 50, Luton 17, Cooper 2-10, Lamble 2-20) by 11 runs.

In a closely fought game, which was rather dominated by the all round performance of Eversheds’ star man, Jagex recorded their first win of the season in tense fashion. Fardell won a toss, for the first time since early June 2011, and put Jagex into bat. A tense first over saw Fardell miss a couple of swipes, before a streaky 4 and a less streaky 2 got Jagex underway.

Jones walloped the first ball he faced to backward point and called for a quick single. Fardell then demonstrated why he is not going to be challenging Usain Bolt for the title of, “World’s Fastest Man Who Loves KFC” at this summer’s Olympics, being run out for 6. It turned out to be a tactical run out by Jones, as he and Lamble took the bowling of Eversheds to the sword, in a strong opening stand. The odd streaky edge apart, the batsmen never looked troubled, and both retired with 25 apiece. Jones hit some lovely offside shots through extra cover, and Lamble was strong through midwicket. P Morgan came in for a spell, and managed to clip a very nice four through square leg. Unfortunately he was caught in his crease to a straight one a few balls later and was bowled by the irrepressible Hanglin.

Colin Ramsay then strolled in for his first ever game of cricket in all formats, using some, ahem, borrowed protective equipment. He managed a cheeky 2 to get off the mark. He then chipped a ball up in the air to the fielder at square leg, who managed to make an absolute pigs’ ear of attempting to catch it, leaving the batsmen to scamper a single. Colin clearly saw this as a decent tactic for scoring runs, as he chipped another into the air straight to a fielder a couple of balls later, again the fielder dropped it and again Colin scampered a single. All these years of playing I’ve been trying to avoid hitting to fielders – I’ve clearly been doing it all wrong...

Howe, another player on debut, and one who adds to our overseas contingent, came in, and sadly fell for a duck. Colin joined him back in the hutch shortly thereafter. Cooper and S Morgan were left to finish the Jagex innings, with Jagex having got a little bogged down in the middle. Both really accelerated towards the end, with S Morgan clipping a lovely four backward of square, and Cooper absolutely middling two straight driven fours. One of these had the umpire (yours truly) jump in the air and do the splits. Both finished not out, on 17 and 12 respectively, with Jagex posting a handsome total of 129-4 thanks to the late acceleration. S Morgan will have been particularly pleased to avoid a third straight trip to the duck pond, via duck lane.

The opening attack of Lee and Lamble, aside from the lovely alliterative qualities it affords this match report, bowled a solid and probing attack. Lamble in particular was bowling in excellent form. The economy rate really tied down the batsmen, and Eversheds’ innings, forcing the batsmen into some rash shots. Whilst Lee remains wicketless, he was very economic and was unlucky to see one catch shelled off his bowling, and Lamble twice did batsmen with the well disguised slower balls, to finish 4-0-20-2.

S Morgan replaced Lamble and P Moran replaced Lee. Piers bowled imperiously again, extracting movement and verve. S Morgan, using the wind, was bowling well. Sadly, though, both had to face the cricketing animal, known around Cambridge, that is Hanglin. Whilst wickets tumbled around him, he managed to bash, bludgeon and biff his way to 30 runs, including two quite brutal legside sixes off S Morgan’s bowling. Bam Bam would have been proud of the smashfest that briefly ensued. I don’t know if it helps, Steve, but he’s playing at the MCC this weekend.

Despite this acceleration, there was some really top notch fielding in the middle few overs. Fardell didn’t quite lead the way when he dug a hole with his knee in the outfield. Lee did though, with a couple of great stops, including one covering for P Morgan. Oliver Smith also distinguished himself a couple of times at point, and late in the game Howe made a great stop at long off to save a boundary.

P Morgan managed to use the age old tactic of bowlers up and down the land, bowling 5 good ones, for no wicket, and then securing a wicket, twice in consecutive overs no less, with the last ball of his over. In each case, the last ball was the worst dross he had bowled, tempting the batsmen into risky strokes, and exposing the furniture.

Howe came in to bowl a couple, and despite having not played in ages, really bowled quite well, the odd loose one aside. S Morgan was finally rewarded for having to bowl at a semi-pro. He tied one of the batsmen in knots for a few balls. Kris Jones then chirped in with a ‘you’ll get him next ball Steve’. He was exactly right, in one of the most timely pieces of sledging ever, as the batsmen feathered behind to the watchful Tween. Doc wants his DeLorean back, Kris.

With Eversheds a player short and 7 down, Hanglin came back in. Fardell turned to Cooper and Lee to try and tie him down. Coops bowled as well as he had the week before, keeping his first over to 2 runs and a wicket. Lee was faced with the unenviable task of bowling to the Eversheds man, and did well to concede only 10.

Eversheds needed 19 to draw from the last over. Coops stepped up. First ball, a great save by Lee for 2, was unfortunately turned into 4 by a spot of generous fielding. Clearly we wanted to make this dramatic. A cheeky 2 followed, as did another cheeky 2. 11 needed from three balls, the field spread, and Hanglin tried to go straight over the top. Fardell hobbled in and held a tough chance over his head, to leave Hanglin with 50. With Eversheds’ finishing on 118 all out, Jagex prevailed by 11 runs.

This performance, despite all the Transformers chaps having spent a team building day in the sun, and having had the odd cheeky shandy, before playing cricket. Jones put in his performances of the season, and I would have been able to say the same of Cooper, had he not bowled so well last week. Clearly liquid refreshment before the game is better than after the game – I’ll stock up for next week.

A word on my own sledging. The oppo this  week, and rather a lot of my own team, thought my sledging was rather suspect. My early sledge, 7 balls into their chase, of, “look chaps, they’re getting tired already” didn’t get the laughs I had expected. Later on the, “get him a rod and some worms, coz he’s going fishing”, didn’t get much of a titter either. I personally was rather proud of my description of a great Howe dot ball as being “the old Gold Coast ball”. He’s Australian, geddit? Obviously not, as the response was – “what on earth is that supposed to mean”. Next week chaps, I challenge someone, anyone, to sledge effectively, or at least better than I (or the absent Jamy) can manage.