Back on the field!

Well this weekend saw me finally get back on the field, after 2 weeks of fucking about due to my finger. It's still not completely fixed, it's still swollen, but I can bend+move it without pain so I felt I was ready to go back on. We lost the toss on Saturday against Caistor and were put into bat. It was a very green pitch, and we were 2 down within about 2 overs, losing Rak and Sam in that order. Andy and Kev put on about 40 to get us to 46-2, albeit off about 21 overs. What came next was a collapse of Sri Lankan proportions! 46-2 became 46-4, then 48-6, then 53-7. I walked in at 9, with the previous 3 wickets falling for ducks. I saw out the over comfortably enough, and hung around with Edwin, chipping in with a 4 through mid-wicket . Edwin fell for 7 at 61-8, and after myself pulling a 2 through midwicket, we lost 2 wickets at the other end for no runs. All out 63, me 7*. I could have done with keeping the strike on the last ball of the previous, but there was no single on offer really. We had 6 ducks, 5 of which occurred in the last 6 wickets that fell.

Teas were good, Caistor don't mess about when it comes to food! We walked out there knowing that we needed to take early wickets. Unfortunately, we didn't have that luxury. The first and only wicket fell on 49, I took a fairly simple catch off Deegs, their opener trying to sweep a ball and top-edging it to short-fine leg. I bowled 5 overs, the first 3 of which were all maidens. At one point my figures were 3.3-3-0-0, but in my next over and a half I bowled a wide ball which the batsman cut for 3, and a lovely full bunger the batsman put away for a boundary. The captain took us off, in pursuit of wickets, and brought on a couple of part-timers but it didn't help, we lost by 9 wickets. Picked up fielder of the match though, decent return for my work in the field!

On Sunday the match was a different affair. Well, sort of. We headed to Reepham, where I knackered my finger in the first place. Needless to say, everyone told me that if I did it again they wouldn't forgive me! We lost the toss and bowled first, And Ben B set about trying to run through the opposition. We had them one down fairly quickly, Ben picking up a wicket in the 7th over. After that, their opener and no.3 laid the foundations for a decent innings, before Lenny picked up the latter for a decent 25. The opener went on through to make 50, and I came on with them at about 80-2 in the 24th over. I got a breakthrough fairly early on in my spell, and continued to bowl fairly well throughout, not giving anything away. Ben came back at the the other end to take a couple of wickets, and I picked up another 3 to leave me with figures of 7-1-21-4. Reepham ended up at 156-8 off their 40.

Teas were once again decent, the home-made scones in particular going down like a house on fire.

With the bat, we started off well enough, lost a couple of quick wickets in the first 15 overs but we were on about 70-2, with Ben B going well again, hitting 20 off about 7 balls, before playing a loose shot and skying one. Once again, that led to a procession of wickets, and ended up with me walking in at 100-7 with about 15 overs remaining. 4 an over, doable normally, but with only 3 wickets left...? I headed in, saw off the first couple of overs for not many runs, before losing Pete at the other end, leaving us 110-8. Lenny came in and held an end up for a couple of overs, hitting a decent 4 and a 2 as well. At the other end, I was playing well! Picked up a couple of 4s through the leg side, and rotated the strike well, before Lenny got out to a pitched up delivery, leaving us on about 125-9. Gooders walked in at 11, no Chris Martin with the bat, so I felt a bit better about it. We started to work the strike, and I picked up another few runs, as well as running the extras and wides. With 29 needed off 3 overs, Gooders picked up a 4, as did I, and we were left needing 12 off the last over. Gooders ran a single off the 2nd ball, and I hit 2 4s in 3balls, leaving us with 3 to get off the last ball. Unfortunately, the bowler (also a left-arm spinner) speared it in short and quick, on the leg stump, and with 6 (yes 6!) fielders on the leg side, I couldn't get it away, and Gooders was ran out trying to force the fielder into making a mistake. Absolutely gutted. All out 154. Left on 26*, a personal best, with 5 leg side 4s and a total of 2 scoring shots on the off side. Was chuffed with the effort, but having dropped 4 catches in the field (including their opener who made 70, when he was on about 30), and collapsing so rapidly, we shouldn't have even been in the situation we were. A good effort though from the lower order considering where we were at!

My stats for the season are:

Batting: 6 innings, 5 not outs, 61 runs, top score of 25*, average of 61 (one for the scrapbook!), strike rate up at 70 (apparently, I'm unconvinced!)

Bowling: 45 overs, 10 maidens, 138 runs, 10 wickets, best of 4-21, strike rate of 27, average of 13.8. 1 catch in the field.

Decent enough start, need to get some more runs, wickets and catches mind. And a few wins would be nice too!