Notts straight bowling ties the 2nds in knots
By Leprechaun
August 27 2013
London Leprechaun reports on the 2nd XI Trophy semi-final at Radlett. Anothe day of what might have been.
Having safely left builders putting a new fire escape on my house I set of for Radlett via St Pancras. I think the tube station there must have been designed on the Ryan Air principle – the one that says we fly to Sweden but you actually land in Denmark. The walk from the Tube to St Pancras mainline station is so long it feels like you walk the the length of the Marylebone Road to get there As I left the tube station the match had just started, By the time I got to the station and got my ticket and got the train, ten overs of the Notts innings have passed and they have got off to a flyer by the looks of it. Of course we had won the toss and fielded. Is this a new Middlesex policy - whatever the match we will field first.
Somewhere between London and Radlett, Ravi Patel gets two in two – how many nearly hatricks have we seen this year?
As I arrive, Notts have slowed down a bit but with only two wickets down they are in the driving seat. Two of their youngsters – Wood and Kelsall are batting solidly and with a fast outfield, plus the Radlett slope, boundaries and runs are plentiful enough. Given that they are only two wickets down for most of the innings, they look as if they might reach a huge score. Our bowling is not looking over threatening sadly and there are a few misfields on what may be a bobbly outfield. However, their power play was rubbish (from their point of view) and cost the wicket of Wood. Franks came in and hit a breezy 23, including a huge six that had some people worried about their cars. Kelsall was out in the 39th over for a solid and from what I saw, classy 100. The Notts score of 252 was a good one but with only four wickets lost maybe they feel they should have got a few more.
Radlett is looking a picture in the sun and there is a decent crowd including lots of Middlesex hierarchy – are there some people playing for their futures here? Lots of interval chatter about the team for tomorrow, the England ODI team and captain and how come the Unicorns A are in the other Trophy semi-final. All out for 80odd against Lancashire. How did we get to play a Notts side with Paul Franks and Luke Fletcher in the team.
Back to the cricket. Unfortunately our innings followed a familiar pattern to the 1st team. We got a decent start with Stirling and Rossington biffing the ball to all parts and by the time Rossington edged behind we had a solid base and were ahead of the run rate. But Stirlo played on not long after and things got stuck. Nick Gubbins looked solid and played some nice looking shots as did Adam London. But Wood and White – two spinners then bowled very tidily and we could not even seem to rotate strike through singles. The run rate climbed steadily and people seemed to get into the thirties and then get out trying to up the rate. We had a decentish power play which kept things interesting for a while, but we fell in a heap once we had got to 200, and our last six wickets were all bowled – properly bowled as stumps got seriously rearranged.
Balbirnie who had looked composed was the first to go, followed closely by Ollie Wilkin. Ryan Higgins –leading run scorer for England Under 19, came in oddly at 8 and was the first of an all bowled hatrick by Fletcher who was bowling some mean yorkers. Tom Helm was 2nd and Ravi Patel, who had been on a hat trick himself could not stop the ball cannoning into his stumps. Sandhu nearly made it four in four with a wild swish; Josh Davey gave some late flourish in the last two overs before Sandhu became the 7th bowled in the innings. Yet again we were annoyingly close – yet again it was about maybes and what ifs. Maybe the biggest maybe was to see – if you bowl straight you will get wickets! But hey ho they are all on a learning curve. And I am still curious about how Unicorns A ended up in a semi- final.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:30:19:37:10 by BarmierKev.
The fact that they lost only 4 wickets while we lost all of ours tells the story.
The top 6 as you say got stuck between 30 and 40 compared to Kelsall who made 113 and that was the matchwinning innings apart from Fletcher's hatrick: which with the Middle requiring 35 off the last two overs was always gonna be a slogathon for the lower oder.
Thx for your effort. I agree about your comment on the St Pancras stroll: a country mile.
Made it myself last Thurs on the way to Derby. By the time you have gone up the escalator: you feel as though you have walked to Derby.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:30:18:39:47 by Seaxe_Man.
