Tim Dyer writes…
Oh dear, the wheels fell off in fairly spectacular fashion!
From the highs of Weybridge to the lows of Walton, nothing went right from the toss onwards.
A warm, humid, slightly overcast morning at SDCC, with the vague possibility of rain later on. The wicket was quite green and looked like it would assist the bowlers, especially with the new ball. Win the toss, field and chase a total was the right call.
John won the toss and batted. The coach is not sure what happened, he thought that SDCC had lost the toss…a little bit of misunderstanding, perhaps the slightly earlier start was to blame!
Anyway, the die was cast, SDCC were batting and setting the total.
Robbie and Matt C opened up the SDCC innings. I’m not going in to too much detail, other than to say that 3 of our top 5 batsmen were run out and Matt C was on the end again of another poor LBW decision from the opposition umpire – left arm over to a right handed batsman, who is a long way forward.
By the end of the 8th over SDCC are 16 for 4. Robbie, James L, Matt C and Matt L are back in the pavilion.
To be fair to Walton, their first four bowlers were fast, very accurate and used the conditions effectively, creating plenty of swing and movement off the seam with the new ball. They made batting very difficult and exerted pressure. The SDCC innings stumbled on, with wickets falling at regular intervals. No one seemed to be able to keep John company.
Walton were by now operating spinners from both ends and general bad stroke selection created two golden ducks and one silver to quickly follow on from Will D’s dismissal for 4. By the end of the 13th over SDCC are 34 for 9 with Adam, Alex, Will C and Hugo also back in the pavilion.
Jim then joined John in a last wicket stand that lasted 5 overs, moving the score to 46 before John was caught off the last ball of the 18th over for 15. Jim finished on 8 not out and hit the only two boundaries off the bat during the whole SDCC innings.
Walton gave SDCC 11 extras, which was the second top score!
The Walton bowling was good and their fielding was keen, but the SDCC score flattered them.
The team talk was rather subdued, everyone vowed to give it their best effort to try and defend the rather meager total.
Alex opened up the bowling and bowled a very fiery first over, clean bowling the No.2 Walton bat with his 4th ball for a golden duck. At the end of the 1st over Walton are 2 for 1. That was the best of it. Walton got the 47 runs required in the 7th over to win by 9 wickets.
Walton’s coach was delighted and almost thanked SDCC for batting first!
Alex bowled 3.4-1-10-1; Matt L 2-0-15-0 and Will C 1-0-14-0.
SDCC gifted 15 extras, of which 8 were wides and 7 were byes.
Lessons to be learnt…
- Stick to the game plan.
- Bat out the full 20 overs – occupy the crease.
- Everyone in the team can bat – the team bats down to No.11.
- Cut down the Extras!
- Always fight, right through to the end.
Man of the Match was Alex Bond, who has bowled consistently well all season and who briefly shook up the Walton batsmen this morning.
Thanks to Hugo from the Under 15s for wicket keeping, he is always very welcome to play for the Under 17s.
Thank you to David for scoring, Felicity for providing the teas and to the supporters for turning up, but sadly not having much to cheer about!
The next 2 weeks are very pressurized. The coach wishes everyone the very best of luck with their GCSEs.
Best Regards,
Tim