Jags 147/5 (Parrish 80*, Ant 20, Turner 2-3, Taylor 1-25) beat Histon 109/6 (Mailes 25, Turner 22, Brett 1-12, Bennett 1-15) by 38 Runs
MOTM - Matt Parrish (duh, look at the scorecard!)
To all regular readers of this blog, I do apologise. I've been a bit neglectful in match reports these last few games, partially as I have a new job, a child and some other things keeping me rather busy. Partially it is also an abundance of laziness. I will endeavour to improve.
We have a strong affinity with Histon, seeing as half our number play for them at the weekend and some occasionally turn up for them when they're absolutely and utterly desperate and bereft of other options (cough), so we do enjoy games against them. Nothing, to my mind says "spirit of cricket" like playing a game with and against your friends, exchanging lots of lovely banter, and then getting to the pub afterwards for beers. Together. As it should always be.
This game was re-arranged from a few weeks earlier owing to weather and it was sure to be dark at the death. Histon have invested in many things, but all round lights are not one of the fine facilities they have, so the side that bats first had a distinct advantage. The toss was key.
How we'd like it to look of an evening - that's Matt and Ant by the way
So Matt got mega super amazing Captain points for winning the toss, and whilst there are differing schools of thought on this (there actually aren't; you bat first in evening cricket) he decided batting first was the thing. Even then, with the clouds as they were, it was not light. It had been much nicer two weeks prior when the game had been called off because there was the prospect of some rain, maybe, in another village somewhere else. Still good to get this one on. The groundsman also put us on the 1st pitch (yay) but right on the edge of the square (booh) on a strip that was green as George Ezra's lawn, and angled at a tilt that looked like it was the first hill located in all of Cambridge (WTAF).
This is roughly what the track looked like, at least it must have been given how I batted
Matt and Ant, our star opening men strolled out facing an assortment of Histon 1st and 2nd teamers, all familiar to them, and proceeded to hit with free abandon right from the off. 21 runs were plundered in the first eight ball over, with Ant absolutely murdering a 6 on the 2nd or 3rd ball that meant the ball had to be replaced within the first over. The assembled gang of girlfriends, children, brothers and fathers, and at least one mum had to wait a good 5 minutes before play resumed. Then Ant and Matt took back to where they had started, Ant in particular was in no mood to wait around. Matt was in there too, belting a 4 through square, and forcing Ant to jog through for the odd single. He's determined to help Ant stay fit.
Ant was clearly riled up for this, as he was giving no one any respect, off side, on side, he even moved his cement block feet a couple of times to hammer the ball this way and that. I want to say Histon looked stunned, but it was already too dark and I couldn't see their faces. After some fairly lovely biffing, I recall a lofted cover drive for 4, a crunched backward square swivel and one straight back over the bowler for a one bounce 4, we were flying at 41 without loss from 3 overs. This forced Histon skipper and 1st team regular Turner to come on and bowl to arrest the rate. Ant was hitting the ball with the ferocity of Simba from the Lion King when he's all big and stuff and has just found out his uncle killed his dad. Awkward.
Live by the sword, die by the sword, as Ant fell to the first worldy of a catch that evening, spanking a certain four over extra cover that was caught, it must be said somewhat painfully, by one of the Taylor's on the team. Benjamin Sawyer then strolled out, his Mum watching expectantly. Matt gave him a long talking to before he took guard, the words were probably, "he's a good bowler, just play it safe and get in". Sawyer nodded purposefully and then took a wild swipe at the first ball and was bowled leg stump. He walked back, his Mum shook her head, and she left the ground.
This left me walking in, on a green strip, against a 1st team bowler on a hat trick with the whole field in. Brilliant. Matt basically said the same things to me that he had said to Sawyer. I was just sat there hoping he didn't bowl it near the stumps or me. He didn't, wide of off, and I even got a "good leave" from the keeper, which felt a bit odd to me, as I actually tried to hit it, but am so old and slow it looks like a leave nowadays. We then settled into a phase of the game that I'm going to call the "one man army" section, where I couldn't score for toffee, Matt was hitting the ball to all corners, and the game was really, keep Mark off strike and don't run Matt out. I took my non scoring partner role very seriously for the 20 balls it took me to get my 3 runs before being bowled finally trying to actually spank one.
Matt was absolutely belting it, despite some very good bowling, and favoured the offside, back over the bowlers head, deep square, cow corner, and probably some other places too. Fraser bowled very well at this stage, economic, and making full use of the absolutely ridiculous track that we had been given. Phillips joined Parrish, and Matt at this stage must have thought, what sins have I committed in a previous life to get absolutely no support from batsmen 3, 4, or 5, as Phillips missed a lot, much as I had, before falling to the aforesaid Christie, trapped LBW. Well done that man and good luck for your A-level results this week.
Matt and his army...
Cozzie, a late subsitute to the action joined, and initially was taking the same line as Sawyer, Fardell and Phillips had. Missing a lot, surviving a ridiculous ball that almost shaved leg stump, but crucially running ably with Matt, helping Matt farm strike, and not running Matt out. Matt got to his 50 here off about 30 balls, and seemed to be playing a different sport to everyone else. Cozzie, clearly encouraged then hit the shot of this, or indeed any night, moving his feet across, stretching the long levers, and absolutely nailing a driven 6 that flew over extra cover on the full, drawing universal approval from the Histon team. Matt was still motoring, looking knackered, and forcing copious changes to the field that didn't really achieve anything other than more runs. Cozzie fell eventually on 10, caught, leaving poor Mr Barker to stroll in with 3 balls to come.
He got a 2 and 2 and 1 to finish, and didn't run Matt out either. 147-5 felt both par, and actually pretty awesome given that it was essentially all down to Matt. Seeing the strength of the opposition, and knowing they are operators, we knew we'd need to be at our absolute best. And we were.
Chris Mailies (part time Jag) and Ben Keeble went out for the opposition first. It got a touch darker as Mr Bennett opened the bowling, as he does. Honest to goodness he was great at the open, looking angrier than ever, and making it hard for Chris to score. Ant misfielded slightly, but in truth, it was inconsequential even at this early stage, since the batsman rushed a single to the misfield just to get off strike. I think Bennett had them both rattled right from the off.
He was joined in partnership by Mr Brett, who whilst not angry, bowled like he was mildly irked by some small crime against cricket somewhere, conceding few off his opening over, forcing some play and missed opportunities, and generally being the wily pro that he is with ball in hand. Chris in particular was seeing a lot of the strike, but not getting any of it off the square. It was a top 2 overs to start, well supported with Phillips behind the stumps doing a great job right away, Sawyer in aggressive form in the field (now his Mum had gone, he could let it all go). 3rd over in, the first strike, low scoring rate and Keeble tried to go aerial and pitched it to Parrish at mid off to take calmly over his head. This brought the dangerman, Stuart Cronin to the crease. He is well known for hitting the ball into space on a fairly regular basis. In fact, I reckon about 2% of all space debris is cricket balls hit by Stu. I can't prove it: you can't disprove it; it's a Schrodinger's fact (sort of).
Bennett continued and was denied an LBW on Chris. The umpire gave it, but after consultation with the sporting, amiable and gentlemanly fellow that Adam Phillips is, we all agreed he'd hit it and he stayed in. Fielding at this point was top notch, Cozzie stopped a cracker in the deep, Tyler held up a certain boundary, and there were almost run outs galore a couple of times. Boud was having a fair old time of it on the boundary was well. It was like most of the team had eaten Reddie Brek washed down with Red Bull in the morning. It was an exciting time for me to be stood at square leg, doing nothing but watch it all unfold.
Scoring was slow, light was drawing in, and then the moment of this or any night happend. Stu had scored a couple of 2's and went big to Liam's bowling. He absolutely leathered the ball back at Liam, for the nano second I saw it, I expected it to kill Liam, or go straight through him and soar to the boundary. It didn't neither, he deflected it, quick thinking in his follow through with his right hand deflecting the ball, and it finally settled in his left. It had been absolutely monstered, and he had held it like a regular Sunday afternoon game of catch with the kids in the garden. Stu was incredulous, talking about quitting cricket, and most people had no idea what had actually happened, it was that fast. Players hugged, children cried, spectators whooped, and it was all a bit mad to be honest.
Freddie Meldal joined the game, having opted to play for Histon. He's a welcome sight, and has had a lovely weekend season. Still, a game is a game, and he was greeted to the crease with the customary jokes. He managed to score a 4 edged past Phillips. He also left one that was a gnat's hair wide of off stump, eliciting a very vocal reaction.
Liam had to stop bowling at this point, as his right hand was no longer functioning, but at least it was still attached. Bennett finished his spell tying Chris to the floor for most of the last over, and he took the fact we stole one of his wickets in the interests of sportsmanship in good grace. 35 overs this season for the Jags, at a 5.92 economy rate with 13 wickets. Not too shabby.
Boud replaced Brett at the other end and having seen Tyler and Liam, thought, I fancy some of that. He got Freddie bowled first ball, deceiving him with a slightly short of a length one that didn't get up as high as he had expected. Turner (1st team man) came to the crease, and Boud bowled so so well he almost got a 1 wicket maiden, false shots, millimeters from the stumps, the whole shooting match, before they whistled a single by fluke (it came near me, sorry Jake).
The other end, it was Barker's turn to impress everyone, and this he did, also tying down Chris for a spell with his patented Cambourne balls. He's taken a leaf out of the Bennett playbook this week, using his angry face to try and intimidate people in his run up. There were almost a couple of run outs, so keen were the batsmen to get off strike. Sawyer was once more in the action in this department, always keen for a direct hit.
Call me Lassie. One. More. Time.
Bowling changes are supposed to bring respite to the batsmen, particularly in this format, but there was none of it. It was pretty dominant and Histon were a long way behind the rate.
Chris Mailes had by this point scored about 6 runs off 30 balls and survived an LBW, so he decided to try and starting swinging. He hit a hilarious 4 through cover, Ant was well stationed to stop it, but gently moonwalked backwards and ushered the ball through, worried as he was about any damage it might do to his dealing hand. Unshackled a little bit, Chris then plonked a 6 onto the top of the batting nets from Boud, and it took a random dad about 5 goes to give us our ball back. Fielding was still consistent, and anything wayward from Boud or Barker was snaffled by Phillips the Cat. Chris and Turner started unleashing a bit more, concious that the target rate was high, and a nice 4 to backward square from Turner, and a few strikes from Mailes, before the scariest moment of the night when Chris hit a straight 6 from Barker back over the bowler's head, clearing the site screen and almost murdering some grannies playing bowls.
Chris picks his target
Morgan Yaxley then came into the attack, and after a couple of wides from the current resident umpire Freddie (his Xbox chum no less) he claimed Chris, finding him trying a late cut to short third man, where Sawyer snaffled the chance. Some notable fielding from Cozzie again in the deep, going one way and the other before stretching out a paw to catch one happened around this point. Tyler also was having a stormer in the field, almost scoring a direct hit run out from long on, and throwing with absolute precision each time he was called upon.
Sabin, a regular Jag chose this moment to join the fray and Sawyer twirled the arm in partnership with Yaxley. Morgan is called "The Yack" in the book, and I think that is better than Yaxkey of earlier this season. Still, Sawyer was called "Soya Bean" in the book, and I don't think that will stick at all.
Sabin struggled to score and then also hilariously having not scored, pinched the strike from Mr Turner on the last ball of a not at all productive over facing the Yack, and laughed at the hilarity of what he'd done, before he even finished completing the run. Histon were miles behind now, and yet the chirp was brilliant, the fielding more so, and the only question was whether we could keep them below 100. Turner fell to Sawyer in amusing fashion, ball bowled, hoiked high to short midwicket, Yaxley was there but Sawyer absolutely screamed "mine" to ensure the caught and bowled fell to him.
Fraser Christie joined us for the last phase of action, and helped Histon get the 100, and offered a really nice amount of chat at the end. All of us laughed heartily when he forced Sabin to take a risky two runs by screaming, as the ball went to Tyler, "run, he's got no arm". Oh how we laughed. Except Tyler. He definitely didn't laugh.
The final phase of action saw Sabin hit a single-ish to Sawyer, who knew Fraser would take the suicidal pointless last run, picked up the ball, waited for Fraser to pass him, then threw down the stumps with Fraser in, out, who cares - he dived and it was bloody hilarious.
It's just a shame Sawyer's Mum had left long before he did all these good things.
Hands were shaken, smiles were exchanged, and a genuinely amazing all round bowling and fielding performance with virtually no errors or looseness was the prize for the second half of the innings. The first half of the game had been all about one man; the second half was all team.
The Red Lion in Histon is a fine pub, and so we retired there, with good representation from both teams, and plenty of decent chat and nice beverages.
