NORTHern Lights Outshine our Dark Shade
By Various MTWDers
May 7 2013
Due to a massive demand to report on today’s match it was agreed the reporting duties should be shared between many of the MTWD faithful with observations both written and verbal submitted to Barmy Kev. By the time you read this nearly all of you should know the result and many on how the game unfolded. However, I hope you will benefit from some random updates passed my way of progress of game, my vague view of Middx response with astute comments as well as some quality photo shots. Apologies to the note book reporters whose ball by ball commentary notes I omitted.
We start with Beefy observations for overs 0-10 (ish)
After a lunch time-meal at Alsop Arms I arrive at ground seeing queues for tickets. Change in scorecard Corey in for Murts. Finny / Harris were walking round ground signing autographs. Grandstand is annoyingly crazy so I emigrate to Warner Upper, as I get there to see Wallace out 38-1, then Cooke run out clearly but can’t believe they ask for tele referral. Bragg is batting well and getting big headed. Kimmy drops her crisp packet and she blames it on wind. We meet some friendly Glam fans, who also emigrated from Grandstand. I hand over report to Diamond it’s 57-2 from 11. He should have taken over after 10 but was on an ale break.
Good throw from mid-off well done Joe
Diamond reporting overs 11-20 -with Kev interupting
North and Allenby are punishing bowlers. There is a glorious drive for 4 off Berg and if Kev could read his writing could tell you what over it was. Further updates of Diamonds were notes of being distracted by further ale breaks and discussions with the friendly Welsh. Rest ball by ball commentary. By time notebook was handed over to Ken PR the score was 107-2 after 20. Barmy Kev significant comment at this stage- they would do well to get 250 from here.
Ken PR (welcome back Ken) takes over the notes for 20-40 overs.
I am distracted by Mobile phone constantly going off to tune of "Help" (irony there). Some top shots going on while wanting them to turn that phone off. Bragg is out for 62 excellent catch Smith. This is followed by a change of ball, no idea why. First six by North in 30th over. He is batting well and reaches century. As stand is building and gathers momentum Josh Davey is bowling at the death he earns a new nickname Rogan. North takes a liking to his bowling as well as TRJ who he clips into Grandstand for 6 of penultimate ball of innings. Glamorgan reach 280-3.
Milks deserved applause
Barmy Kev joins the Warner stand during break and grabs the notebook for some views from those desperate to comment from the Upper Compo. There was no fight put up from those in Warner,
Barmy Kev Reports on Middx reply with random comments
I watched the start of our innings from various parts of ground. Forgive me if I skip a bit. I am in Upper Compton with our score on a healthy 78-1 from 13 with a long way to go and am really concentrating.
Hmm!
Ironically my first view was those 2 Aussies North and Allenby bowling trying to inflict more damage. It would have been but Wallace missed a routine stumping (and maybe a caught behind) off of AC could this be a pivotal moment as we were 5 behind on Vera? No he was out next over. Just as Denly looked settled and we are not far behind again on Vera he was out chasing a wide one. The crucial factor to me was the performance of Stirlo. He seemed to working up to let loose with run rate around 8 mark and anything possible. He he was out with an attempted heave and I felt effectively game lost.
Shattered stumps shattered hopes.
Dext was next in. There was a period of consolidation between him and Berg. We were 140-4 from 26 overs and now rate over 10, I commented to Mrs Fozzie this bad for us psychologically. This was followed by 2 successive boundaries by Berg the rate was below 10, but then due to consolidation run rate was soon back over 10. In this period in effort to up rate Dext was out slashing as we were clawing back. Then Simmo was out holing following a 4 (after the 4th ball change). I told Mrs Fozzie once run rate is over 12, two runs a ball it’s very difficult psychologically and indeed it was. At this stage 204-6, the Power Play called, 15 off the first over we have a sniff of chance again. With Josh, TRJ caught out in deep the run rate went above the psychologically bad 15. Berg was bowled for a well timed 75 if only he had somone to stay there with him. By now no psychological lifelines left and they were worse milestones we needed to reach as the game petered out. With last wicket pairing 33 was needed off last over I thought of possible chances involving 6's and no balls. All we significantly achieved was Smudge driving one ball very hard into the facing Corey’s ribcage, Ouch, not another bowling injury? The run rate was 162 off last ball we did not achieve this.
Ultimately, the difference of the 28 run defeat was effectively the last 5 overs of both innings. With not much between relative scores Glam had wickets to accelerate with 60 runs and we made rather less.
There were some interesting insights from elsewhere. The London Leprechaun commented on a Tweet from Eion Morgan where he said he was watching game from his hotel in India supporting the Middle. And our Ladies team beat Berkshire Ladies –woo hoo! A relevant point made that Glamorgan had a YB40 game the day before, while we had a come into this match on the back of a 4 day game and would be better prepared. (Then again they had an overnight journey from Colwyn Bay)
Mrs Fozzie commented on when we were in deep sh.. we were batting in deep shade, towards the Grandstand. She justified this by commenting the visibility is now not so clear and the eye pupils would have to instinctively adjust while the team batting first would not have this issue. We won the toss, was this considered? (then again wouldn’t this factor affect the fielders?)
Feel free to discuss both points on this thread.
I n conclusion- a good day’s cricket was enjoyed, apart from the result, with 530 runs +. The better team beat us on day with our net run rate not suffering too badly. Rememember this has stopped us qualifying for 2 previous years. All we need now is some victories.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:05:08:21:00:24 by BarmierKev.
Many will remember Middlesex's final Clydesdale Bank 40 match of 2012 v Essex at Lord's, when a great deal of Essex's pursuit of out 288 was played in poor light, and indeed the umpires eventually decided to abandon the match out of safety for the players with 4.5 overs still to be bowled. And like yesterday, the team who won the toss decided to bat second.
However, I don't know how much of an excuse this can be for us yesterday, as I don’t recall much cloud cover.
Quote:Jonathan Winsky
I think the issue of the light is very relevant in limited-overs matches played without the aid of floodlights considering the team batting second often have to bat in fading light depending on cloud cover and the time of the year, whereas the team batting first tend not to have this issue.
Many will remember Middlesex's final Clydesdale Bank 40 match of 2012 v Essex at Lord's, when a great deal of Essex's pursuit of out 288 was played in poor light, and indeed the umpires eventually decided to abandon the match out of safety for the players with 4.5 overs still to be bowled. And like yesterday, the team who won the toss decided to bat second.
However, I don't know how much of an excuse this can be for us yesterday, as I don’t recall much cloud cover.
Jonathan. you're obviously right that cloud cover wan't a factor on Monday. I wasn't listening closely to the conversation reported by Kev, but I think the argument was that as most of the fielders were positioned more or less permanently either on the Tavern side (in bright sunshine) or on the Grandstand side (in the shade), their eyes would thus be able to adjust accordingly: i.e. with their pupils expanding if in the shade or contracting if in the sunlight. However, the batsmen would constantly be having to adjust their adaption to the light through having to switch their direction of vision, depending on which direction of the ground the ball had been hit. Of course, this would also affect the wicket-keeper and bowler as well as the batsmen.
Whether or not this was a factor, I think I would have preferred us to bat first simply because when the toss was won they were absolutely belting conditions for batting. Not that the result would necessarily have been any different, of course.
Regarding Leprechaun's point. I found it ridiculous not only did Glamorgan have time to prepare with 40 over game the day before, we had 4 solid days of CC cricket with little time to change our mindset. Yet there was a massive gap between our two CC games. The scheduling is ludricous, but we are talking about ECB there.
They could say they were at an unfair advantage for not even getting an ideal nights sleep.