Jags Do It Doggystyle

Jags 109/2 (Ant 31*, Fardell 29, Dan 24*) beat NCI Allsorts XI 108/9 (Dobson 36, Ramesh 16, Savage 7-3, Barker 15-2, Yaxley 22-2) by 8 Wickets

MOTM - Ben Savage

We returned to familiar environs of Queens this week for our 2nd league fixture against the NCI midweek team chasing a second successive league win. A lot of the core team were present, supplemented by the addition of Messrs Ben Savage and Morgan Yaxley from sister club Histon. All the regulars had their shiny new Jags kit on proud display.

It was a glorious evening and we are in the prime time for long light evenings, so looked forward to the game. Captain fantastic lost the toss and the NCI team decided to bat, always a wise choice in evening cricket. Fardell picked out a genuine Reader from his bag (more anon) and proceedings began with Bennett and Brett bowling in tandem. The early bowling was pretty tasty and one opener struggled to get it away. The other managed a few shots, and there were the customary extras which in the early stages propelled the scoring more than the runs. The chirp was as high as the sun, with Ant welcomed back to the fold, slouching at slip and looking for all the world like he was just waiting for his next match on Tinder so he had a reason to get his phone out of his pocket. 

The ball however, it must be said, may not actually have been a genuine Readers as after 3 or so overs, it looked like this.

megacheapcricketstuffs.tv is not getting any repeat business from me

This made it easy at this point of the evening for team members to have a simple topic to sledge, banter or chat about - since the whole conversational tone in the field was, "have you seen the ball", "how bad is the ball", "oh my God it's not even round", "is the ball homemade" etc etc. For the less original and quick witted members of the team, it was like mana from heaven; free chat. The first wicket came when Brett found his lines well, and after tying the batsman down a bit, tempted him into an offside aerial drive which despite the "ping" it made off the bat, headed straight for the grateful hands of Mr Threadgold - helping Liam secure a wicket maiden. Tyler was bowling some tight lines, and for the most part was being treated respectfully by the batsmen as a result, with the result being scoring was very slow.

The new NCI batsman was of a certain distinguished vintage, shall we say, and had a high lift and exaggerated technique more reminiscent of weekend cricket from the 80's than 20/20 thrashes in the evenings. Scoring was still slow, NCI struggling to overcome a good bowling start from the Jags. As the dot balls piled up the pressure showed, with the non-striker seeing the ball tickled behind the batsman, and calling and running for a suicidal single. He was duly sent back with no chance of making it. The Jags had enough time to miss the batsman's stumps and relay it through two team members before Tyler removed the bails at the bowler's end.

NCI got their first partnership together around this point, and Kingsmill came into the attack replacing Tyler. Will is not quite 100% fit again so bowled some more modest paced stuff. His height and accuracy provide enough variation to be threatening, but in truth he is at his best when he has the express pace and viciousness that we all know he is capable of. Scoring ticked along a bit better in this partnership, although not at a rapid pace, just better, with the odd loose ball dispatched and more extras. Liam's figures had been mega up to this point 3-1-1-5 runs, but the tricky 4th over blotted his copybook somewhat, when 4 dots were followed by two aggressive 4's.

Ben Savage a youth debutant came into the attack, and the fielding all round was good. Nice glovework from Mr Parrish, good boundary riding from T, and a few decent infield stops from Fardell, Phillips and Will helped to keep things quite tight. Savage was very tight here, and eventually the other opener decided he needed to make a change, and charged him, the ball passed the blade, and Parrish neatly took and swiped the bails off in one seamless movement. The umpire didn't even signal, the batsman knew he was out, tucked his bat under this arm like a Sunday newspaper and off he went.

At this point we had a minor pitch invasion from an overexcited pooch, who had a collar, but no lead or owners anywhere to be seen. This lovely looking little chap really took a shining to one of our resident Dog lovers, James Barker, and just trotted around playfully after him in the field, sensing some doggy treats in his pockets, or maybe he was just curious what the odd smell was. Who knows, if only dogs could talk. We actually played on at this point, as it was clear the pooch was going nowhere and when James fielded a ball and threw it back to Parrish, the Dog saw his cue and raced after it, putting more effort into getting that ball than most of our fielding team combined. Eventually he departed, when his actual owners appeared from behind a hedge. 

Savage was bowing some, well, savage lines, and his economy was ace. He got his next wicket in the third over, a genuine weekend wicket to the left hander, a nice ball on a length, good shape and it kissed the edge and Parrish standing up made no mistake with the gloves. A word on Parrish, who essentially stood up and close to most of the overs, despite the variety in pace. He's confident in his skills is that man, and rightly so.

Barker came in for Kingsmill and his first couple of balls were big loose wides - possibly not aided by the absolute state of the ball at this point or his recent encounter with Lassie. He found his line eventually, bowling the new batsman with a peach that popped up and moved to disturb the off stump. NCI had not managed to string a partnership together for some time, and were at about 77 runs from 15 overs, well below par. Savage continued and was rewarded with a 3rd wicket, the ball being a little fuller, tempting the drive and there was Mr Threadgold again to snaffle a good catch at mid off. His figures for the game were 4-0-3-7 - which made the man of the match a simple statistical pick.

On his dog day afternoon, Barking mad James was not to be outdone, and continued his bowling in fine form, pushing one just a tiny bit closer to the other batsman, who then clipped in the air to mid on. Here Mr Phillips was waiting, and he adopted the face crusher technique to ensure he caught it, putting his hands backwards over his eyes, certain to suffer severe injury should he fail to hold the catch. 

There was also time for a streaky edge that went through Ant at slip at this point, he's a hard man to hide in the field sometimes.

Yaxley came in to bowl a couple at the death and one NCI batsman decided to try and take him on, mindful of the situation (i.e. they don't have enough runs to defend and they're quickly running out of balls to hit). Two good balls were hit for 4 and 6 respectively, before the skipper tweaked the field and the batsman clipped one to short square, where Fardell held on just above the turf. The last few overs saw some continued slow scoring, although the odd boundary, and the last ball of the innings saw Mr Parrish complete a great shift, stumping a batsman: to finish with one edge caught, two stumpings and involvement in a run out. 108/9 felt hard to defend.

Given the total, Parrish shifted the order around slightly, allowing Fardell to open again. Early scoring came quickly for Matt, less so for Fardell, but I did get a gifted 4 in the first over. Parrish unusually fell second over, having clipped a few he charged the opener and somehow managed to wallop his bat against his leg, causing a large gap to appear between bat and pad, and that was that for him as the ball snuck through and dislodged the bails. Ant wandered out, a touch out of form lately, looking to use the low pressure game situation to get back into the swing of things after weeks of Footgolf galore. 

Scoring was slow, possibly not aided by the match situation, but also some very good bowling from NCI and good defensive field placements to make it difficult to pinch runs. Ant played out 8 dots in a row at one point, and faced 15 balls for his first 5 runs. Very 20/20. One bowler tied both Fardell and Ant down, finishing on splendid figures of 3 overs, 9 runs, but no wicket. He would have made the difference on another night. We slowly clipped along, Ant was reluctant to run 2's and no amount of cajoling would get it to happen, particularly after his recent net based side strain, but we were still scoring enough to not be in real danger. NCI did well in the field, trying to keep the contest alive and the bowling was tight.

Both eventually managed to up the rate slightly, which was all that was needed really with a low total. A streaky edged 4 to the standout NCI bowler helped, and there was boundaries over long on and to deep square that I recall, before Fardell was bowled trying to up the stakes in the 11th over. Dan came out to get Ant going, and he did, forcing Ant to cover ground and run singles like only Dan can. There were some nice smites down the the ground (quite a lot to cow corner) and we cruised to the total with some aggressive hitting from Dan and Ant, both finishing not out on 31 and 24 respectively and with more than 4 overs to spare.

2 league fixtures, 2 wins. Afterwards a few retired to the Red Bull for the customary refreshments, whilst the opposition stayed at the ground for a bit, drinking cloudy looking homemade hooch from a flagon bottle, which seemed a bit weird and hillbilly for cricket, but each to their own. There was some solid chat on the What's App group from T about his dog as well.

The latest addition to the Jags roster