Askham Bryan Cricket Club

Askham Bryan 93 all out beat Fulforgate 5 by 36 runsView Photos

“Tomorrow will be the beginning of our winning streak”
Albert “Octopus” Hall, in a text to Parag, Zeeshan and Ujwal on Friday

The Batting

Another pleasant day greeted the cricketers as they arrived as the Askham Arena. The pitch was straw-coloured, though slightly damp underneath. Overall it looked a good track and both captains were keen to bat, with Sirius Dale winning the toss and sending Parag and Phil to their preferred positions – at the crease, facing the opening bowlers.

The two set about their task steadily, with typically tight bowling from Fulfordgate making runs hard to come by. However, they took advantage of the bad balls, with Parag making his way to 22 with some tasty drives and cuts. He was then unfortunately trapped LBW, with Askham on 31. A mini-collapse followed, with Ujwal and The Grewer both departing without scoring, leaving Askham 34 for 3.

Woody and Phil then steadied the ship, with Phil pushing on and Woody hitting some big shots. Woody was then clean bowled for 20, attempting a big shot off the left arm bowling of D Baldock. Phil was also bowled for 16, with Pete Sharpe then following for 2, a good catch being taken to a positive shot. Zeeshan, meanwhile, was in good form from the week before, striking the ball well outside the off stump, and working the ball nicely off his legs. Sideshow joined him and hit a beautiful four through gully, before he departed, followed shortly after by Albert. With the score at 85-8 with still 7 overs remaining, Phil Theobold came to the crease to join Zee.

Phil played a fine innings, not perturbed by the return of the Fulforgate opening bowlers, driving the ball nicely into the gaps. Zee continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over, until he was unluckily given out LBW for 14. Rob Dale came in at eleven and hit a crisp four out of the ground, until he was bowled, leaving Phil Theobold 6 not out.

The team were 93 all out, surely at least 50 runs behind what they would’ve hoped for…

The Tea

Rob produced another fine tea, with the long, crumbly sausage rolls being a particular favourite. The unexpected introduction of tea cakes was also well received.

In fact, the tea was so good that little was left, with the batting side unable to resist. Who likes batting on a full stomach?

The Comeback

Askham looked fresh in the field, sharp(e) after another good set of fielding drills before the game. Woody opened the bowling from the Northern End and set about his task with fire. After an early single, the batsmen attempted what seemed a fairly safe single to square leg…

…apart from the fact that the mighty Ujwal was fielding there. He pounced on the ball like a panther, sent a good throw in to Dale, who removed the bails to leave Fulfordgate 1-1. Things got no better for Fulfordgate – Woody clean bowled the other opener for 0, with Zee getting two wickets himself, including another great catch from Ujwal at square leg, leaving Fulfordgate 2-4.

Fulfordgate began to rebuild slowly, steadying the ship, as they still needed under 4 an over. Jim came on to replace Woody, and put the “ace” into “pace”, with a mixture of pitched up and short balls. He bowled a “slow bouncer” to one of the Fuldordgate middle order, which took the inside edge of the bat and the top of the middle stump.

Jim was joined by Mark at the other end, who was putting the “ooo-err” into “Grewer”. The Grewer bowled tightly and a mini-collapse ensued, with Jim getting two more wickets, the batsmen top-edging short balls from the menacing paceman. Skipper Dale collected one of the catches behind the castles, with The Grewer taking the other, leaving Fulfordgate 34-7.

Fulfordgate began to knuckle down again and rebuild, bringing up their 50 without further loss and needing less than 3 an over to take the game. A coachload of schoolgirls turned up to watch, presumably to cheer on The Grewer, who was unlucky to remain wicketless in a tight spell (7-1-22-0). Jim finished his spell with excellent figures (8-2-17-3), pleasing fantasy leaguers all over Askham.

The opening bowlers returned, with Askham badly needing a wicket. Zeeshan finally made the breakthrough, with a lovely full ball that moved away from the batsman, who feathered a catch to Rob behind the stumps. Woody (7-4-8-2) then returned the favour, clean bowling Cairns for 12, leaving only 1 further wicket required. Zeeshan (7.3-6-4-4) finished the job, with another one beating the batsman, and Askham took a much-needed victory.

For the third week in a row, Zeeshan batted well and took the majority of the wickets, meaning that the team were expecting Woody to run away with the man-of-the-match trophy yet again. However, justice was done as Zeeshan was given the nod after another great performance.

Of course, it was another team effort. Though more runs would’ve been nice, Parag’s 22 and Phil’s 16 at the top of the innings proved to be an important base. Likewise, there was some excellent fielding all round, most notably from the unbeatable Ujwal. Finally, a special mention should go to Phil Theobold, who batted solidly for his 6 not out. A sign of big runs to come? We do hope so…

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 10:27 am and is filed under Match Report, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.