The start of a new cricket season. The smell of freshly cut grass and the gleaming red leather of a new cricket ball prefaced our first match of 2013 - a friendly with the MCC (no, not those). The fog of the morning drifted off during the day leaving a beautiful, if somewhat chilly, evening ahead.
The
Zoots went into bat first on a very green, slingy pitch with little
bounce to begin with. Simon and Ullasa opened the batting against
Will whose balls were full and quick. Simon showed some promising
strokes, but also the stumps; bowled in the first over. Ben came in
at three and got in the swing of defending early on, seeing off the
rest of the over. Ullasa at the other end scored freely on the leg
side with some booming pull shots, whilst Ben saw out Will's final
over. A pull gone awry, Ullasa was caught plumb LBW for 14, bringing
on Anthony who quickened the scoring even more. He hastened to 25 and
then retired. Acting Captain Matt came to the fray just in time to
see the frustrated Ben charge down a nicely floated leggy, only to
miss it by a foot and get stumped.
The
cricket debutante Pierre came one starting a period of quick scoring
a hard-run singles. Unfortunately, one wasn't run as hard as the rest
with Pierre run out soon after joining Matt at the crease. Surjit and
Paul in the lower order had excellent strike rates, hitting fours at
times that demoralised the fielders. Special mention to the
bludgeoning exploits of Will, whose 21 pushed our total towards the
highly competitive 123 all out after 13.4 overs.
The
sun was falling and the temperature dropped as the Zoots made their
way onto the field; some shivering in overcoats, others basking in a
lovely evening after so many rubbish ones. Crosby and George opened
the batting for the MCC and proved a formidable opening pair,
knocking up 26 and 24 respectively. The quick bowling from Matt
(2-0-21-0) and Ullasa kept them at bay for some time, but embracing
the pace, runs were scored consistently. Ullasa displayed his worth
with excellent figures of 2-0-4-0, frustrating the batting team.
With
the Zoot surfeit of medium-pacers Surjit (2-0-9-1) and Anthony
(2-0-17-0) joined the fray, bowling quickly and always making the
batsman earn their runs. Ben (2-0-14-1) came on for one over to loop
up some leg breaks, changing the pace and increasing the over rate.
By this time the runs had slowed through economical bowling and
excellent fielding from all, including sprawling dives from
wicket-keeper Mike to prevent byes. Simon (2-0-10-0) and Will
(1-0-14-1) came on late - displaying out depth in bowling attack - to
slow the play and mop up the tail. Paul had the huge responsibility
to bowl the last over, and did so responsible and with menace. It's
hard not to be afraid of bowling who warrants a four man slip cordon!
Excellent
bowling and fielding stemmed the blistering start MCC made to their
innings, leading to a victory by 19 runs.
Zootallurgy
CC: 123-10
MCC
CC: 104-
Very diplomatic: runs were scored consistantly off the openers, but they got bugger all off Ulassa. Oh well, there's always next week :)
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