Selby vs Askham I
Selby 144-4 beat Askham Bryan I 115 all out by 29 runs. View Photos
Bowling
Another marvellous sunny day greeted the teams on their arrival at Selby. Captain Rob Dale, looking bookish as ever, won the toss and elected to field, on a fairly wet looking pitch.
Messrs Wood and McCullogh opened the bowling. Mr Wood bowled spears of pace at the Selby openers, pitching full and causing the batsmen difficulties. Sideshow – resplendent with a perm Kevin Keegan would’ve been proud of in his prime – bowled a great spell, in spite of some trouble with his run up. Jim made a breakthrough early on, with Parag taking a marvellous catch to a well struck ball in the covers. The opening bowlers got no further scalps, but kept things incredibly tight, with Selby scratching around on 2 per over. Rob and Dan chatted away behind the stumps. All was well.
Zeeshan replaced Woody and continued the pace explosion, getting some early edges and unlucky to make a breakthrough. At drinks Selby had just over 50 on the board – Askham were pleased.
Albert and Parag then replaced Zee and Jim. Albert bowled a good first over, then was erratic in the way only he can be…3 or 4 good balls, followed by some “hit me for four” filth on middle and leg. Parag worked up a good head of steam and bowled tightly without success. Selby were beginning to settle well, scoring runs more freely and taking the total toward a hundred. Albert looked close to make a breakthrough in his final over though, with…
The Ball That Did Too Much
Having bowled a personal best of two good balls in a row, Albert bowled a fullish ball that turned a bit and hit the opener’s pads. “Did he get some bat on it?”, inquired our spinner. “No” replied the umpire…apparently the ball had “struck outside the line of off” and “turned too much, so that it would’ve missed leg stump”. Albert asked for this endorsement in writing from the umpire. He followed this up with a couple of lovely four balls, to finish his spell…
Zee and Woody shared the final ten overs and bowled good, tight lines to restrict Selby. Zeeshan was eventually rewarded with a much-deserved wicket, clean bowling the Selby opening batsman for 40. Phil “The Power” Allen dropped a bit of a sitter (by his own high standards) on the boundary off Zeeshan, but then redeemed himself by taking a spectacular diving catch off Woody’s bowling in the following over. Fantasy League conspiracy theorists are checking his team as we speak.
The fielding performance ended with a slightly mad last ball run out, Selby ending on 144-4.
Tea
Tea at Selby was good. It was no North Cave, Westow, Dale or Horne tea, but it was solid, and did include scones and homemade jam tarts with seeded jam. Harsh critics may have requested some onion (maybe spring onion for that light, tangy lift?) in the cheese sandwiches. Still, you can’t win them all (as Askham were about to prove).
Batting
Phil “The Power” Allen and debutant Dan Wheeler opened the batting for Askham, against some mixed Selby bowling. The left armer from the “not the railway” end had a number of leg before and caught appeals turned down. However, the two settled down well and began to accumulate runs positively, getting to 25 without loss after only 5 overs. However, Phil Allen was the adjudged LBW by Albert “trigger happy” Hall, for 5. Prateek followed shortly after, being bowled for 1, and Askham were now 28-2.
Pete Wood then joined Dan at the crease and they rebuilt the innings in fine style. Dan had already played himself in well, with some well-timed backfoot drives and sweeps, building up his innings swiftly. The two pushed Askham forward at a good run rate, with Woody starting to unleash some big hits over the top to good effect.
With Aksham coasting, Selby turned to a young leg spinner, who bowled Woody mistiming a sweep shot. The rot suddenly took hold – from 87-2 after just over 20 overs, Askham suddenly became 98-7, losing Zeeshan LBW for 0, Dan for a well-crafted 42, Jim for 1 and Parag for 7. Albert and Rob put on 10, until Rob nicked one to the keeper for 4, followed shortly after by Praveen for 0. Doug Strachan bravely came to the crease with a split finger obtained during fielding, with Askham still 30 short of the target. Albert decided to try to go for it, and was bowled for 13.
Overall, it was a good match, played in the proper spirit of the game. Metaphorically speaking, Askham will feel a little disappointed that they batted themselves into a David Seaman type position (solid, safe hands at the helm), to be followed shortly after by a bit of a Robert Green (slipping through their fingers).
Pete Wood got man-of-the-match for the second week running, laying the gauntlet down for a response from The Grewer at North Cave. Will he take up the challenge? Check out next weeks exciting edition…