Eversheds 138 (Humphrey 44, McGlashan* 26, Verma 18-3) beat Jagex 125 (McClarty 28, Van Daal 22, New 19-3) by 13 runs.
Jagex were narrowly defeated in a closely fought and enjoyable game against Eversheds at the CASS Centre in their first game of the season.
Jagex won the toss and put the opposition in to bat. The CASS centre square and outfield are notoriously firm and difficult to field on, but the ground was in the best shape it has been for some time. This doesn't mean it was good, just better than normal. Jagex gave debuts this week to Messrs Wise, Verma and Gibbins, new recruits stepping into the shoes of some of those who we have lost since last season. Alex Evans of Jagex, also on debut as 12th man, kindly played for Eversheds, seeing as they were short with only 9 men. Tween was wicket keeping today in his last 'official' game for the Jaguars.
Lamble and Verma opened the bowling. Verma managed to extract real pace and venom from his first few overs, with a skiddy low trajectory and fast action. Despite being injured playing kickball over the non-cricket portion of the year (known as, 'autumn, 'winter' and 'spring' to most people), Lamble was tidy to start with an opening two over spell. The Evershed's batsmen were struggling to get going initially, such was the quality of the bowling. 4 overs in saw the first wicket taking action of the season, courtesy of Verma. He managed to bowl one of the openers with a full paced yorker on middle stump. The number 3 batsman wandered out nonchalantly and found himself bowled, first ball, with another full paced yorker, this time on leg stump.
4 overs in and Jagex found themselves on the first hat-trick ball of the season, with men clustered around the bat, the batsman kept it out. Verma was replaced by Amoraal after a 3 over spell. I don't like making celebrity comparisons, but Verma's fast low action has a spot of the Tino Best about it. Lamble was replaced by Cooper. Some early good fielding from Wise and Colledge helped keep the run rate down. Early on you'd probably say that Jagex were restricting Eversheds nicely and building pressure.
Amoraal's first over was tidy, going for 4 runs. Four balls in the batsman stepped forward to middle one, but only succeeded in walloping it straight up into the air. It took an age to come down, and Fardell under it could only slow it's meteoric fall to earth, and bust a finger in the process. Amoraal was not happy, and boy did he let me know about it...
The Evershed's first and fourth batsman both retired not out. Cooper, having kept the run rate down for a spell, then bowled one of the batsmen with an absolute ripper, which turned from a foot outside of leg stump to crash into the top of middle and off. Amoraal finished a 3 over spell wicketless, but he had clearly deserved one with a welcome return. I took him out of the attack to try and stop his dreaded fourth over syndrome. Gibbins came on in place of Amoraal, having shown some great bowling technique in the nets. Some good fielding at this point by Van Daal and McClarty also helped rein the game in somewhat. Wise was also still getting in on the action, with the ball seemingly magnetically attracted to the tall American.
Gibbins was a touch nervous to be handed the cherry on debut, and mixed some of the joyous balls we'd seen in the nets with a couple of half trackers. The batsmen were canny, and left the good balls alone and dispatched the slightly weaker balls. It didn't massively help Gibbins' figures that some of our less athletic fielders were content to 'try' and stop balls with a lazy wave of a single hand and a slow motion bend of the knee. I won't name any names, South African or otherwise. I tried to offer Gibbins some friendly advice to pitch it up, I hope he didn't take it badly - since in when he does pitch it up, it's very hard to play. Fardell came on for a spell, but I was dross to be honest, and was only granted a wicket by a very generous shot from their batsman, straight into the air to the keeper. One ball did move though, honestly.
Cooper continued, and was rewarded with another bowled wicket, with one that seemed to go on straight with the arm. I set some very curious fields - I'd clearly left my fielding map at home. Lamble came back on and was rewarded with a couple of wickets, one bowled and one caught. He put down a tough caught and bowled chance from his own bowling, and dislocated a finger in the process. Like Mel Gibson's shoulder in Lethal Weapon 2 (you know, the one with the brilliant "Diplomatic Immunity"... "it's just been revoked", line in it) he popped his finger back and carried on like a trooper. Amoraal and Verma bowled the last two overs, with Amoraal getting spanked about, and Verma being really tidy, ending up bowling the most dangerous Eversheds' batsman on the night and effecting a run out to finish with figures of 4-3-18. A sparkling bowling debut. Eversheds finished on 138, which was a very good score on an unpredictable minefield of a CASS centre track. 120 looked beyond them at one point, but Jagex got a bit wayward in the middle and some of the later overs.
One major point of note, there was a distinct lack of sledging, bad or otherwise. The only moment of I can recall was Tween asking Amoraal to try and bowl it somewhere in the vicinity of the stumps, Amoraal mumbling 'yeah, yeah' in response, and Fardell chirping in with, "chaps, we're supposed to sledge the oppo...".
The Jagex chase started pretty well. The new opening partnership of Colledge and McClarty were happy to see the opening bowlers being generous on the extras front. One of the Evershed's bowlers had a really threatening and fast action with a long run up. When he found the target, he was hard to keep out. Being the first game of the season, he was quite wayward, and was really more of a danger to his own wicket keeper than the stumps.
McClarty was wielding the latest piece of Kashmiri wood to be added to the Jagex kit bag, coming all the way from Amritsar for the princely sum of £35, including shipping. I also forked out £2 for some "Boom Boom" stickers, to give it an authentic air. Whatever the quality of the timber, McClarty was wielding the willow effectively and hit a wonderful six over backward square leg, almost demolishing a window in the process. McClarty has the fastest hand speed I've ever seen outside of a spaghetti western. His feet, not so quick - the hands do all the work.
Colledge was determined not to get out early on and see off the openers, and with extras racking up the scoreboard looked great. Colledge had only scored 2, but had been facing balls when approximately 20 extras had been conceded in the first four or so overs. Sadly he was the first to fall, in bizarre fashion. Having seen off the openers, he found the first change bowler to also be a little wayward. One ball was speared a long way down the leg-side. Richard casually stepped out of the way in anticipation of a wide, but unfortunately he neglected to move his bat completely out of the way. Somehow the ball clipped the back of the bat and gently looped straight to the wicket keeper. You really had to be there to see it, an unfortunate miracle of physics.
Alex Evans, helping the Eversheds' team out, was helping the out a little too much, and distinguished himself in the field several times. Van Daal came to the crease and looked a little scratchy to start with. However he really got going, hitting some lovely fours, including a late square cut past point, where he even did some footwork. McClarty retired on 28 not out with his second 6, this courtesy of a fielder on the boundary (who would have been very lucky to stop it, let alone catch it). Lamble and Van Daal put on some runs, before Lamble was bowled trying to speed things up. Van Daal was bowled on 22, leaving Verma and Wise at the crease. Verma was unfortunately bowled first ball for our first golden duck of the season, perhaps a timely reminder that cricket is a cruel sport. Fardell then came out to keep the yank company. At this point it was 14 overs, 91 runs, 4 wickets - and with 47 needed from 6 with 6 wickets in hand, things were nicely poised. All Jagex needed was one batsman to sparkle out of the remaining 6.
Sadly none did. Fardell hit a nice four and encouraged Wise on debut. Wise fell bowled, Gibbins joined Fardell and Eversheds brought on their stand out bowler of the evening, New, who bowled what someone described as "'loopy slow s^&t", which is a nasty was of saying he was a spinner who wasn't afraid to give the ball some air. Fardell clearly felt he could hurry things along, since he used no footwork or orthodox positioning to try and whack the slow stuff out of the park, but was bowled. I literally missed a straight ball by miles.Gibbins hit a four, then was out. Tween was run out backing up late.
Amoraal came in to bat and swung, and missed, and swung and missed, and swung and missed again. It was like my first golf lesson. When he connects, it really is a sight to behold, but when he misses, well, nothing happens. Over. And. Over. Again. Cooper tried to get us back on the rate, but in truth some slow running between the wickets and 4 overs where no-one got going, and the game was lost. With Cooper bowled, McClarty came back from retirement to face the final ball of the innings, with 14 needed for the win. He was bowled, by the irrepressible New, to blot his batting average figures.
A good game, played in perfect spirit, and in all honesty Evershed's thoroughly deserved the result for some great late bowling and fielding to restrict the chase. The CASS centre seemed to have forgotten to send a member of barstaff to unlock things, so Eversheds put on a wonderful tea of Marks & Spencers goodies (get in), complemented by the wonderful 'hobo drinking in the park' feel of tinnies. In the weather, it was actually a perfect way to end things.
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