Jags 162-3 (J Barker 27*, Parrish 25*, Coslett 25*, Phillips 25*, Adrian 2-9) beat Histon 118-5 (Anderson-Watt 26*, Brolia 25*, F Christie 19, Brett 2-15) by 42 runs
We had fun last week, so much fun in fact that we decided to do it all again. This week was originally a designated training week. We were going to climb steps, lift weights and do manly things together as a team to ensure we were in tip top shape to face Sharks next week.
It might have looked like this.
No, I jest, most of us were just going to resist the urge to supersize our Mcdonald's. We have some athletes in our team, but we only let them play for us as they are good at cricket, and we sneer at them for taking things like diet and exercise seriously.
This week we managed to get another game on of a friendly nature against the lovely Histon, but including some of the Jags (several of whom the longtime dedicated followers of this blog will know are also Histon regulars). The fixture was fun last week and we were upgraded to the first team pitch this week. It's not Lord's but it is very nice. We were also delighted to welcome back some players from last season, Mr Zak Anderson-Watt and Mr Harry the Wildman, to rejoin the fray.
The square looked nice but the wicket had a distinctly green tinge to it. The strip was also almost literally within spitting distance of one of the boundaries.
Jags won the toss and opted to bat, Matt and Mark started as they often do, at a decent clip, with Ant and Harry opening the bowling for Histon. Ant had been all fired up pre game and so it proved, bowling really fast, but somewhat wayward, making work for Mr Threadgold behind the stumps somewhat challenging. Matt hit an early 6 to the boundary that was about 5 bat lengths away, and Harry was quickly into his stride despite having been off cricket all winter, one loosener aside (everyone gets, one, right?!). Brisk scoring get us to 40 odd off 4, with a couple of nice strokes, before I fenced one from Ant into my own face. Thankfully my classical good looks were not negatively impacted. Shortly thereafter, I was out LBW to Harry - who definitely deserved a wicket for a good spell, but I was sad it had to be me, especially to a ball that almost hit my hip.
Recently acquired Jag James Barker popped to the crease and formed a partnership with Parrish. The Jags were accumulating runs at a good pace for this period, but it was mostly Mr Extras who was doing the hard work. Parrish was out there for more than 10 overs, which is the longest innings anyone can remember him playing in midweek cricket. James Barker was hanging around, although Harry managed to extract a few scares of the LBW variety to him. Clearly he is a specialist, although the umpire was quite clearly not inclined to give two LBWs in the same innings.
That's out, according to our quality standard of umpiring.
Matt retired, eventually, and Barker was joined by Phillips. Both scored at a nice clip, and the innings took on a nice pace at this point with exciting cricket shots being played to all corners of the ground. Phillips hit the pick of them, I feel, with a smite to long on for 6. After the opening bowlers, there was a lot of spin bowling on display from Histon, which was most gracious of them given that the wicket was a verdant and lush green. This allowed both James and Phillips to retire, bringing Cozzy and Liam to the crease.
It was lovely to welcome 2013 Liam back to the batting proceedings, the technically correct, but ruthless batsman who has been somewhat absent since that golden and happy year. 4, 1, 6, 4 and all beautifully struck shots they were. Cozzy, meanwhile, survived a testing opening to then put on a good display of 4's, including my personal favourite Cozzy special - where he looks at the slower ball, prances to the offside to make room, and then hits it with grace and poise to the backward square/fine leg boundary. He never looks aggressive when he hits these shots.
Histon brought Adrian into the mix and his bowling, slow, direct, and accurate. Liam fell, Will came and perished too and Cozzy saw out the innings with a successful last few overs, keen running from Tyler in support, a direct hit 5 overthrow, and some good scoring to propel Jagex to a very strong total of 162-3.
Histon started with the technical proficiency of Messrs J Mellish and F Christie. Both played many sumptuous and elegant shots in the first two overs, although very few of these shots caused the scorers to need to utilise any pencil lead. Tyler and Sap started for the Jags, and it was contrasting as a result at both ends, but contrasting in a lovely economic dot ball sort of way. Tyler was all vim and vigour, aggression and assertion, his fast low skiddy balls almost forcing the batsmen to play proper shots to spare their skins. Sap has a more languid, and less energetic, but no less ruthless style - bowling a tight and tricky spell. So it continued for 7 overs, tight bowling, lovely shots, not much in the way of scoring. If this was a test match, and we were deep in day 2, you would think the batsmen would be well primed for the morning session tomorrow to push on.
I'd like to take a moment to offer a special word for our Geordie Warrior. Cob was really top drawer tonight behind the stumps. In 20/20 sometimes the wicket keeper doesn't touch the ball ages because everything is hit somewhere, but tonight was not that night. He was required to be tidy and consistent - and he was comfortably both, plucking one handed, moving nicely and only endured one instance of byes all evening.
Things continued at this sedate county level pace for some time. I feel the Jags bowling and fielding merited a certain amount of respect, but we've never quite been treated with this level of reverence before. Christie and Mellish eventually perished just past the 10 over mark trying to up the pace, with Histon having a 113 run target in 10 overs to chase at this point. Christie was out caught from Phillips, trying the aerial route and Mellish was bowled by a full one from James B. Ant and "Shortmoor" were out for a bit batting, whilst Jags had James, Phillips and then Cozzy bowling. Ant started with the shocking realisation that they needed to up the scoring - so was twirling his blade from the outset, dispatching 4's and.... and this really shocked me... running between the wickets. He sadly ran "Shortmoor" out for a dicey single after Liam had maintained the pressure by bowling a maiden. Threadgold joined Ant for a bit and Will bowled a couple of tidy overs.
Ant there, ready for action
Liam was irrepresible in attack here, inducing a hooked catch from Threadgold and then bowling Wilde for a first ball golden duckling with an absolute James and the Giant Peach of a delivery. The game was long since run at this point, there was time for Ant to continue his good batting run with a well taken 25, and Zak, with no pressure on, had some fun, hitting boundaries for fun, and finishing the innings carving some Parrish bowling for a late 4 and a 6, perhaps hinting at what could have been had the chase started thus. Histon finished 118-5, 42 runs short.
In truth, Histon never quite got the pace of the chase right, although some notable bowling performances from Tyler, Sap and Liam, some excellent glovemanship from Cob, some poor quality banter, and decent fielding efforts, all made scoring very hard.
I believe people retired to the pub and imbibed, as is our wont - but I popped home to do some parenting so cannot comment on the fun and frolics of those less tied to domestic servitude.
Shark Week up next.
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