Tom Evans Profile picture
Jul 2 67 tweets 9 min read
I’m at ⁦@nlwcricket⁩ for the visit of ⁦@SNBCC⁩ - the visitors are batting. This is Zac Donohue bowling to JJ Fielding. Isaac Lea is the other batter. The score is 10/0.
Dom Chambers from the other end. Plenty of bat-on-ball to start with. Batters keen to get forward.
Some good bits of fielding keep the score down. Nice afternoon for cricket, at a nice ground I’ve not been to before.
Fielding goes - fails to get to the pitch of one from Donohue and skews it to cover. 12/1. Jonny Whitehead in next.
Chambers sneaks one through Lea’s defences and trims his bails - 25/2 after an accurate start by the bowlers. Jack Stanley in next.
Whitehead has clubbed a couple down the ground off Donohue but runs very hard to come by. 28/2, hosts will be happiest with the first hour.
Jack Morley on to provide the afternoon’s first #BitOfSpin. Stanley greets him with a sweep for four.
I just saved a lad’s helium balloon from floating away. He just looked at me and said nothing. 37/2
Afaq Ali Sartaj comes on so it’s spin from both ends. Big LBW shout first ball but no joy. Batters starting to push singles but still slow going. 41/2 from 18 overs.
Morley runs in as though he’s trying to kick himself in the backside ruth his heels with every step. Big shout against Whitehead but I think I heard two noises. 43/2
Whitehead clips Sartaj for four then clobbers a straight six; Stanley drives Morley for four. Brief explosion of runs. Then calamity - the batters collide mid-wicket and Stanley is run out. Horrible way to go. 60/3
Nice moment as cover fielder refuses to claim a low catch off Whitehead, who was prepared to walk. He and David Snellgrove trying to rebuild. 72/3
Not a good couple of minutes for the fielders - mid-wicket drops a dolly after Whithead heaves Morley up in the air, then a no-pressure throw from short fine leg somehow results in an overthrow. Snellgrove has got his sweep working. 82/3
Mid-wicket can laugh about his drop now - Whitehead clips one straight to him and he hangs on. Morley with the W. 87/4.
Basil Sultan is the number 6. Morley firing them in with a bit of #zip.
Snellgrove tries to put Morley into the tennis courts but instead loses his bails. Good bowling from the Lancs man, seemed to hurry him up a bit, but not a shot the veteran will be proud of. Couple of balls later, Tom Baybutt stays back and is pinned. 98/6 all of a sudden.
Skipper Chris Cunningham had set off for a walk around the pitch, but now has to hurry back and get padded up. Romario Brathwaite joins Sultan in the middle.
Brathwaite booms Sartaj over mid-on for four. Remember the name. Brings up the team 100. 38 overs gone, 104/6
The dream is diminished for Brathwaite, who chips a slower, more flighted one from Morley to mid-off. 104/7. Chris Firth the next man in. Four wickets for Morley.
Five now for the Lancashire man, after Firth is caught on the crease. 104/8.
Bobby Wincer plays out the rest of Morley’s over.
Sartaj claims his first wicket as Wincer pushes forward and nicks one to slip. Last man Cunningham to the crease at 107/9.
HUGE hit from Sultan scatters the watching children. He’s been in his shell so far but surely has to play some shots. 116/9
Cunningham bides his time, then launches Sartaj for a straight six. Two balls later they think they’ve got him caught behind, but the umpire disagrees. 128/9; two runs for a bonus point.
Skipper keeping the strike and adding some useful runs here; he tickles a four off Sartaj to make it 136/9.
Now Sultan ramps Sartaj for four. Spinners have lost their length a bit to these two. Their wickets so far have come from putting the batters in two minds about how to play; now they’re overpitching too often. 142/9
Cunningham aims a cut at Morley and edges to slip; all out 142, with Whitehead’s 39 the top score. Morley takes 6/44 and leads the fielding side off.
We are back. More importantly, so are the cricketers. Basil Sultan and Chris Firth tasked with removing Nathan Hughes and last week’s centurion, Ben Walkden.
Hughes goes huge off Firth, launching him over the sightscreen. Positive start from the left-hander, as the hosts set off in pursuit of 143 for their fifth win of the season. 13/0
Firth sneaks one into Walkden’s stumps; 15/1. Early scalps crucial for S&B. Subhaan Mahmood in at 3.
Another six for Hughes, over mid-on off Sultan, followed by an edge for four, followed by another even bigger six into the car park. 31/1.
Cunningham replaces Sultan, who was getting some #tap. S&B can ill-afford #tap when defending a low target. Mahmood drives a four, then Hughes plays back to a straight one and is LBW for a brisk 30. 37/2.
Some rugby union players have turned up from an adjacent field and started making fun of the cricket, oblivious to the clear, gaping inferiority of rugby union to cricket. Embarrassing for them really.
Fours through the off side for Mahmood and Rizwan Haider, 47/2
The rugby union players are loudly arranging a trip to Blackpool which sounds like the single worst thing in the universe. 50 up for NLW inside 13 overs; 93 to win.
Rizwan rocks into a dreamy pull off Firth, shot of the day for my money. The ball is the subject of some debate, having been retrieved from the path and car park a few times already.
Another pull from Rizwan - this one a bit more of a hoick - moves the score on to 62/3. A rugby player is regaling his teammates with tales of a recent trip to Magaluf.
Another pull… Firth puts a man out for the pull, and Rizwan gets a massive stride in and sweeps for four more. 79/2, 64 to win.
The man on the pull is still there next over… and Rizwan pulls one straight to him. 80/3, 63 to win. Captain Chris Chambers is the new man.
Bobby Wincer coming on to turn it the other way, in place of Cunningham. 87/3
Good start from Wincer, beating both batters and drawing a leading edge from Mahmood which falls just short. Only actual wickets will do for S&B though. 89/3
And Wincer gets one - classic SLA dismissal, drawing the right-handed Chambers forward and taking an edge on its way to slip. 93/4, 50 to win.
Two in two for Wincer! Now then. After an over from the other end, Siddiq Patel slogs his first ball up in the air and the bowler takes the catch. 97/5, still 46 needed…
Jack Morley sees off the hat-trick ball. Good work from Wincer though, he’s given his side a sliver of a chance.
Drinks in the sunshine. 97/5. Time not a factor. #TomViz (H-D-A) makes it 85-0-15.
Plenty of #chirp for Morley from S&B’s Lancs-adjacent players. He responds with a fine sweep for four off Wincer to bring up the 100. 42 needed.
The last hour has begun. 106/5, 19 overs to go.
WICKET - and it’s the one they wanted as Wincer draws a big shot from Mahmood and Romario Brathwaite swallows it at cow corner. 106/6.
The batters crossed - Morley plays out the rest of the over. 106/6, 18 overs left, 37 needed.
Firth goes for a few singles. 109/6. 34 runs, 17 overs, 4 wickets.
Zac Donohue is the number 8. He plays out a dry over from Wincer. 34 runs, 16 overs, 4 wickets.
Firth bowls a much fuller over to Morley. No runs. 109/7; 34 from 15 the equation now.
Donohue takes a single off Wincer; 110/6 (not 7 sorry). Next table is singing I Wanna Dance With Somebody. It’s not the rugby players any more.
Firth definitely trying to get it above the batters’ eyes. Couple of singles (not the type who wanna dance with somebody); 112/6. 13 overs, 31 runs.
Four byes down leg, then a big shot for four from Morley. Big over for Newton. 120/6; 23 needed from 12 overs.
Just two from Firth’s next over. Wicket now or it’s slipping away though. 122/6, 21 needed from 11 overs.
Cunningham replaces Wincer. Flatter and faster (and right-handed). No runs. 122/6 still; 21 off the last 10.
Donohue scampers two (should save that for the DALL-E game). 124/6, target down to 19 now with 9 overs left. Sensible batting from these two.
Morley dropped at slip off Cunningham. Dry over. 124/6, eight overs to go, 19 to win. That may have been the last chance.
ALTHOUGH… Wincer replaces Firth and immediately knocks back Donohue’s off stump. 124/7.
Dom Chambers sees off the rest of the over, just about. 124/7, 19 needed off 7.
Single for Morley puts Chambers on strike and the field comes in. Another single off the fifth ball, then a near-stumping. 126/7, six overs to get 17. Skipper Chris Chambers Johnson with a drink and a message for Morley.
Dom Chambers goes for it… and hits Wincer for a one-bounce four over cow corner. 130/7, 13 needed. 5 overs to go.
Morley takes a single off Cunningham. Chambers goes for a big heave and is just spilled at short fine leg, tough chance. 132/7, 11 needed. Four overs left in the game.
Wincer still. Scampered single to get Morley on strike. Survives a tough stumping half-chance then bangs a decisive four. Three overs to go, just 6 needed.
Chambers slog-sweeps Cunningham for four - this is all but done. They take one to level the scores… then Morley cuts four to win it. Fitting that he should hit the winning runs after his six wickets earlier. Tense last hour ends in the way it was always likely to.
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