Askham Bryan Cricket Club

North Duffield 95 all out lost to Askham Bryan 98-3 View photos

“We may not be any good at cricket, but we know how to make a good tea”
North Duffield Tea Lady

Bowling

We arrived at North Duffield, full of spirits on the back of two big wins. The team was without headline-grabbing Pete Wood, but had their skipper Rob Dale back behind the stumps, who won the toss and chose to bat on a wicket that looked, erm, a little worn.

Zeeshan opened the bowling with Jim “rear gunner” McCullogh. Both settled in well and got into a good rhythm, using the pitch to their advantage to get some baffling bounce. Jim made an early breakthrough, pitching a ball up nicely to the right hander and taking off stump for a clean bowled. Duffield then dug in and put on 30 for the second wicket, as both Zee and Jim bowled good lines but lacked luck. However, Jim then pitched the ball up well and struck the other opener on his pads, and got his second wicket. A few overs later, Jim got a ball to rise up sharply, which the Duffield batsman top edged toward mid on…

Marvellous Catch #1

…sitting underneath was Phil Theobold. Having practised the high ones before the match, he got himself into position and held firm, and took the ball solidly, to great elation from the team. A top catch from a top fielder, his first (of many) for the club.

Meanwhile, Parag had replaced Zeeshan at the far end and was producing some very quick, straight bowling that caused the batsmen a lot of difficulty. Early in his spell he got one to move away from the right hander…

Marvellous Catch #2

….where The Grewer stood at first slip. Diving low to his right, he clung on to the ball brilliantly and took a sharp reaction catch with ease. He had that “anything Woody can do, I can do better” look in his eyes, as he took the high tens from the team.

Jim also got another clean bowled, and Duffield were struggling on 48-5. However, a fightback came…a couple of catches went down in the outfield, and a few misfields were made, including from star fielder Albert Hall. The crowds stood in amazement as Albert “The Wall” Hall let one past him on the boundary. “Surely not our hero?” they cried.

Jim finished his spell with 4-47 off his 11 overs, a cracking spell. He was replaced by The Grewer. He and Parag plugged away as North Duffield continued to accumulate runs with their one main run scorer. However, Parag got his just reward as he pitched up a quick ball that jagged back in and bounced low, removing Moore for 40. This began the end for Duffield – From 90-5, they became 95 all out, with The Grewer taking two wickets (including one caught nicely at square leg from Ujie).

Zeeshan replaced Parag, whose 2-24 from 9 overs was a testament to his quick, controlled spell, and he got in on the wickets himself, clean bowling the tail end in a manner usually known as “Woody time”.

Tea

The North Duffield tea ladies put on a fine spread for the teams. Cheese and ham sandwiches were complemented by sausage rolls, cold pizza (a classic!) and a great array of sweets – bakewell tarts, jam scones, mini rolls and wagon wheels. Special mention should go to the fruit selection – honeydew melon slices and oranges (a la half time of a football match).

A member of North Duffield CC won the “slab of meat” in the raffle.

Batting

It is tradition in these reports to dedicate a similar amount of space to batting and bowling. However, given Askham’s batting (and Parag’s in particular) this would be difficult. However, in spite of the fact that North Duffield had scored nearly 100, it was quite obvious they’d lost the game within about 6 overs.

Parag was in menacing form – any bad balls (and several good ones), he drove, pulled and cut away for four, murdering the opening bowlers with delight. With 5 overs gone, Askham were 42-0, with Parag having scored 37 off 16 balls (Phil Allen, resolute at the other end on 5 not out). Parag continued the destruction, hitting a big six into the playground next to the pitch, and made his maiden 50 for Askham off only 24 balls. He then miscued one and was out with the score on 58, most of the damage done. A fine innings.

At this point, Askham required less than 2 runs per over, and the remainder of the batting was wisely steady. Brittain was bowling a consistent length and the batsmen wisely kept him blocked out, whilst taking runs at the far end. Dan Wheeler and Phil Allen put on 10, before Phil went walking down the pitch to the spinner and – finding himself somewhere near Riccall as it was collected by the keeper – was stumped by a fair distance. One dodgy shot selection aside, he’d played a good holding role (particularly against the more accurate North Duffield bowler) and deserved more than his 16 runs.

The Grewer joined Dan at the crease and they continued to bat sensibly. Dan profited well with some nice pulls and sweeps off the spinner, and the two took their time to accumulate. However, spotting a short ball, Dan hit it crisply out the middle and was unlucky to be caught quite impressively at short midwicket.

Zeeshan joined the Grewer, hoping to see a game off for the second week in a row. North Duffield unwisely kept the field in, and within a few balls Zee had creamed a four through midwicket, taking Askham closer to their total.

Grewer continued solidly – an old head on middle-aged shoulders – and the two edged towards the total. Having got to 94, Grewer gave Zee the nod to try and hit a six for the final batting point…at which point he marched down the wicket and had to block a good ball from the spinner. However, next ball he went for it and the ball sailed in the air…but bounced before the line. Most importantly though, the job was done and Askham won their third victory in a row.

Another good performance from the team. Mentions should also go to Sharpie and Ujwal for being solid in the field, in addition to some spectacular catches from The Grewer and – of course – the mighty Phil Theobold. The bookish skipper Dale also did a great job behind the stumps, diving around like the cat he is. Following a third win, he was the cat that got the cream. Well, the cat that got the bakewell tarts, scones and watermelon at least.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 8th, 2010 at 11:14 am and is filed under Blog, 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.