Deloitte 123-3 (Barclay 28*, Stewart 28*, Spencer 23*, Brett 2-7) lost to Jags 126-9 (Threadgold 37*, Brolia 28*, Horner 24, Fardell 20, Rice 5-17) by 1 wicket
Man of the Match - Threadgold
A near run thing, was how the Duke of Wellington described the Battle of Waterloo, and that is exactly what we had here in slightly more important circumstances, just squeaking home in a tight chase that see-sawed this way and that against old chums, Deloitte.
Ant on a night out, the ladies to his left and right do not know what is coming...
The weather was still scorchio and we had been moved from Queens to Kings this week. The Kings square has been a bit of a variable quantity this year, something to do with horticulture and subsoil and drainage and the underlying chalk and clay composition dynamics of this part of Cambridge. The short way to describe it is, unpredictable, one bounce flies over your head, the other shoots towards your foot. It's not been quite as bad as some village grounds (I'm looking at you Waterbeach), but the College grounds offer a serenity and comfort that feels almost professional at times. The weather this year has been hard on groundsmen, so it's understandable if things aren't quite as road like as we've come to expect.
Deloitte turned up with a good 9 and decided to bat. We opened Tyler and Yaxley, fresh from his Michelle last week, and the early scoring was pretty rapid to be honest, with both batsmen taking a shine to Tyler and hitting 4's, helped by the pace, the length of bowling and the rapid outfield. Yaxley was more in control at the other end, using his foxing skills to control the batsmen with a combination of pace, and not so much pace, to return some pretty tasty economy figures. The contrast between the two ends was pronounced. Tyler bowled two (8 ball overs) and his third was held back for the death, with Deloitte racing to 30 from 3.
Yaxley turned the tide with the first wicket, forcing one pushed high with a canny ball, that settled in mid on's hands (I forget who, I'll say J Barker as he likes fielding there). We were then treated to James Horner rotating on for Tyler. He had three eventful overs, the scorebook notes him as "Warner" which is close to being really threatening, and the things I recall were some larups from the batsmen for 4's, some revised threat to pull things back in, and an absolute body on the stop from his own bowling with the batsman absolutely hammering it back to him, and James getting in line to ensure it was going absolutely nowhere.
How it might have looked
Yaxley continued for a full quota of 3 at the other end, returning some impressive figures. The top three batsmen all treated him with a lot of respect (or just swung and missed) and prefered to hit their runs from other bowling, with two retiring and one getting close with some lovely shots, including a class off drive, a square cut and a swivel pulled 4 to deep square that stick in my mind.
Brett came in next and was on one of those bowling spells where he just is on it. Tight lines, good economy, and some pretty mega pulled out celebrations - where he somehow misses the stumps or the edge and looks utterly shocked that he has not got a wicket. He cleaned up 2 with top of off jobs, cleaned bowled, and all ends up taken out, to finish on 2-7. He also managed to absolute murder a batsman in the plumbs for the second time in 2 weeks, before bowling him. It's the old rope a dope technique he loves so well.
At the midway point, Parrish decided to hand the gloves to Phillips, and starting twirling his arm for some of those magic balls. Coslett also got in on the it's slower-than-you-think action, his first was dispatched for 4 and he had an absolute meltdown that I didn't run 40 meters in 2 seconds to stop the boundary. Matt twirled with some threat, and then not so much, as Deloitte pushed towards a north of 100 hundred total, treating themselves to the buffet in front of them.
Phillips did some fine work behind the stumps with his usual shy and retiring quiet nature in full display throughout. One dived legside stop was pretty tasty and sticks in the mind even some days later.
Phillips stopping a medium pace offside dobbler
Both Cozzie and Matt bowled better than I give them credit, but one Deloitte batsman was seeing the slower balls rather well. Tyler came back for the death over and did rather well, with Deloitte scoring some 4's through a combination of desperation and that stage of the game, getting them up to a total of 123-3. They should have pushed a little earlier, but their tail was long, they only had 9 players, and the bowling from Yaxley and Brett in particular made scoring hard, and it felt gettable.
Jags opened with Barker and Fardell, in a change up from our usual roster (it was that sort of game). Barker perished on two balls, clipping one high inside the circle trying to sweep. Fardell edged one behind the keeper for 4, to hit the best shot he's hit in weeks. Brolia replaced Barker and with his new stance, continuing eternal confidence, and good foot movement he got his eye in, and moved his feet a lot. I was watching from the other end thinking, wow, moving you feet when batting, that seems like it might be a good idea. Maybe I should give it a go?
Ant took a particular shine to Spencer of Deloitte, after being tied down for a couple of balls, he decided to dance down the wicket, showing his best Friday night on the town twinkle toe moves, and hit 4 consecutive 4's down the ground to retire in double quick time. Threadgold joined proceedings, I continued to protect my wicket a bit and eventually hit a much more crickety 4, an offiside drive/punch that raced away to the boundary. Dan was in rambunctious form, hitting a lovely leg side 4 and a nice punch for 3 that I recall. I perished taking on the short ball from the fast bowler, having hooked one for 4, I tried to repeat the trick, it was a bit faster, went a bit higher and was caught in the deep. Still, I'll happily take 20.
Phillips and Threadgold put on a brief partnership, before Phillips fell, bowled through the the double width garage he left between his bat and pads. Horner replaced him and hit his first for a massive 4 over long off. Threadgold was into his stride now and the two rotated strike nicely, hitting 1's and 2's with reckless abandon to keep the Jags very much on the rate.
Threadgold's retirement, brought Coslett out and a new bowler in for Deloitte, Mr Rice. He had a Yaxley-esque spell to get to his 5. Horner was extracted first, 24 and swinging wildly outside off to leave a mega gap, being replaced by Parrish. Parrish scored a little single before perishing to a really quite solid delivery from a bowler other than Rice, good length, moved away and top of off bowled.
Cozzie fell next, edged a lovely wobbling delivery to the wicket keeper - who genuinely looked absolutely shocked to death that he had held it. It's a look we know well in this team of certain nameless wicket keepers from our recent past. Brett walked out with the rate climbing and wickets tumbling and tried to push on, but was bowled moving down his wicket. Yaxley was briefly out and the instructions were, please try and stay in, but he couldn't falling to a tricky LBW delivery that slid back in masterfully.
We had Bennett and the returning Brolia out to see things home with Threadgold our last man to return should he be needed. He was. Bennett, scored a single and then perished slapping it high, for Brett (as substitute fielder) to take an easy catch giving Rice his 5.
This left us needing 9 off the last 8 ball over with no wickets in hand, and the opening bowler back on. It was frenetic, and it felt tense. 1, was followed by dot dot followed by 2, then pressure relived with a 4 from Dan. 3 balls left, 2 runs needed. The next ball was called wide and the bowler was less than pleased, muttering something about "desperation" to Phillips the umpire. Dan put things beyond doubt, hitting a 4 through the backward point region for a win with 2 balls and no wickets to spare.
A tight and tense game at the end, but some excellent batting from Ant and Threadgold, including nerves of steel at the end, and some good middle order biffing from Horner and a very tight and economic bowling performance got us where we needed to be. Next week, Histon are up - and I would bet they put out a spirit crushingly good side for the last game of our season.
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