Another Saturday in the Hampshire desert, and another must-win match (at this stage of the season, they’re all becoming like that). We returned to the Bowl and a pitch that played true throughout, thanks to Jon’s sterling efforts despite the latest round of heatwave…

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This week welcomed the return of regular spectator Eden, but as we shall see there was little demand for Advice From Eden this week… granted she did spend much of the match taking shots of Jack (that’s shots of Jack, not shots at Jack) with her camera, and I understand from Gary they’re now up on Jack’s Only Fans page…

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With Jules away on manoeuvres, Dom would take over the skippering again, and where he was once the novice now is the Master, demonstrating this by going out and losing the toss. Unsurprisingly, Burridge chose to bat, so it was into the field for us. 

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This week we would return to the redoubtable partnership of George and Mike opening up the bowling, but despite the ball regularly passing the edge an early breakthrough wasn’t to be, as the openers set about doing what they did when we played away at Burridge, negating (or missing) the good balls and picking up the runs on offer. As previously, one opener held up his end, whilst the other threw his hands at the ball and was soon accumulating the runs. That said, the run rate was only steady, going along at around 4 to 5 an over but never accelerating past that. Clever skippering (yes Dom, that’s you) manipulated the field to keep the defensive batsman on strike as much as possible, preventing there being too many opportunities for big hitting.

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Nonetheless, the partnership would rise steadily, and as in the earlier fixture this season it was beginning to look like a wicket was going to be hard to come by. At 80-0 it was looking a little worrying, but a change in bowling had brought Sammy into the attack from the Hillman End and the returning Dan Clark from the still-needs-a-proper-name-Equipment-Shed-End. It would be Sammy who got the breakthrough, inducing an edge which was snaffled by Jack behind the stumps. The batsman walked without waiting for the signal, which was given anyway; a pleasant change from much of what we have seen this season…

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The number three started off with intent, lofting the ball high towards the boundary almost immediately, in a clear signal of how he intended to bat, but this attack was cut short by some superb work from Dan. His ball was driven in the air back at him, his outstretched hand above his head deflecting the ball up and to his, and in the split seconds he had available Dan would dive through the air with the agility of a lemur on a trampoline, taking the rebound catch one-handed for an outstanding caught & bowled.

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With the score at 100-2 after 20 overs, Burridge hadn’t got away, and it felt like another wicket, especially the set opener, who had gone past his fifty, would see us right into the match. Sammy duly obliged, sending down a slow floaty one (I’m sure it was deliberate. Sam said it was, anyway), which the batsman swung at, missed, and saw his stumps knocked back. “How did I miss that” was his comment as he walked off – many of us know that feeling…

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With that, it felt like we had our claws into the match, and with the fielding tight and the energy having come back into the field after the opening partnership silenced us a bit, an outstanding spell between the 20th and 30th over saw us concede only 35 runs. 

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The two Marks – Messrs Emm and Acaster – had been brought into the attack, and we continued to restrict the runs through the last 10 overs. The bowling was backed up by excellent efforts in the field, heedless of the hard ground and decidedly unpredictable bounce in the outfield (I understand bets were being taken as to when I would stop one with my face…), as we sensed a chance to restrict the total.

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In what must be a first in a long while for Curdridge, we also didn’t see any of the chances for a catch put down. Few and far between as they were – the ball kept seeming to end up in the gaps between fielders – every catch that came was taken, as we picked up more wickets during the final ten overs, first Dom taking a catch to reward Mark Emm’s bowling, before Mike would follow up from Mark Acaster’s, then Gary taking the fifth catch of the day, to give Mark Emm his second wicket, ensuring we nabbed another bowling point.

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Only 45 runs coming from the final ten overs, the second half of the innings had definitely been ours in an all-round bowling and fielding performance, and we would go into the break having restricted Burridge to 180-6.

 

So, onto the batting. 

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Out went Dom and Mark Emm to open things up, as Burridge commenced with spin from one end and conventional pace from the other. Dom negotiated the first over, only to be followed by the only real damper on the day as Mark spotted a shiny metallic amphibian and gathered it up as the first ball of the second over swung from leg to off and thumped into the base of the off stump.

 

An early wicket wasn’t what we needed, but Jack came out at number three, determined to strike some good poses for the camera. 

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The early bowling needed some negotiation as the batsmen got used to the rhythm and the pitch, but Dom soon got into his stride and began to pick the balls, as the score also began to pick up. Dom was into the 40s whilst the score was still only in the 50s, but then Jack also got in on the act and began finding the boundary with ease too – which for some reason seemed to aggravate the Burridge bowlers, can’t think why.

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The score and the run rate were both beginning to mount, but when Dom was out for 55 then once again a note of nervousness might have spread. Fortunately, in strode George, who doesn’t really do worried when it comes to cricket, and immediately set about ensuring the innings wouldn’t collapse as both he and Jack did exactly what was needed, negating the good balls and picking off the runs wherever they were offered. 

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We were right on track throughout, and the run rate indeed began to accelerate beyond that required. A change in bowling, however, brought a strike, as Jack lost his stumps just five runs shy of a half-century. However, this only brought Dan in to bat, who also is generally quick to get off the mark, so there was no discernible depreciation in the run rate. Both George and Dan continued the accumulation job as victory appeared to be nearing and with plentiful overs left to go. George, looking well-set for a half-century, then sent the ball back into the hands of a fielder and was out for a well-crafted 41.

 

With only a handful of runs needed and Gary going into bat, the odds were being discussed on the sidelines as to whether it would be done in boundaries or whether Alan would soon be replacing Gary at the crease…

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As it was, Dan took on the job of getting us over the line, even making Gary run a two, and with the scores level Dan duly finished the job, striking the ball out to the boundary to bring us home for a fine win, with eight overs still to spare.

A terrific performance all round, keeping the runs down in the field and calm batting bringing us much-needed points to keep us in the fight against relegation.

 

Thank you to Alan for doing most of the scoring and to Jan for pitching in at the end when there was a slight panic that the scorers weren’t padded up yet… 

 

Next week:  Away to Fair Oak IVs, who annoyingly also won at the weekend, so whilst we’re both creeping up on Eastleigh our win didn’t help in opening up a gap on the team below us, making this Saturday even more of a crunch match.

 

Champagne Moment: Well, we finally got over the line in a match which respective league positions suggested we would have been the underdogs for, but this week’s Champagne moment was out-and-out Dan’s caught and bowled.

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Man of the Match: it seems churlish to award it to any one player this week, with contributions with the ball, the bat and in the field, but of particular note we saw Sam return to bowling form going at only 3.75 runs an over and picking up two vital wickets, Dom with another half century, and Jack and George with crucial 40s.

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Donut of the Day: no-one did anything deserving of a Donut this week, at all, not even in the set-up (Mike steered clear of stumps, bells, the sightscreens…). However, the skipper suggested after the match that it should be awarded to me because of the variety of bruises I’d come away with from stopping the ball… and there I thought that’s what fielders were supposed to do. Never stop learning in this game!