Match Report

It would be lovely to report that the sun shone brightly on a warm, dry sunny summer’s evening in Middleton Park. It was at least dry even if the temperatures hovered around 15 degrees celsius. The cricket was close enough to keep all four spectators interested enough to stay outdoors, with only the occassional visit to the warmth being given off by the barbeque.

Middleton were asked to bat first. Anirudh and Mark Ford Langstaff were striding out to the wicket on the stroke of 6.00pm just as Paul Wordswort was completing the last lap of the ground on the mower. Four minutes and four balls later Anirudh was striding back to the pavilion, muttering curses as he was given out LBW for a duck.

Elliot Barton approaches batting in twenty over matches in an aggressive manner. He clubbed his second ball for a boundary and MSSC were away. Galloping away as Mark and Elliot were enjoying the fare from the ISIS attack. Within the first quarter of an hour the score passed 30, Elliot contributing a huge six over long on and Mark rotating the strike.  Elliot tried one huge drive too many and was bowled for 21 from just 12 balls.  Jamie joined Mark with the plan of continuing the momentum set up by Elliot.  The loss of Mark LBW and then Jamie stumped by a huge margin,  meant that David Cole and Gus Floyd would have to restablish a platform. 

Isis took advantage. Just 10 runs were added in the next 6 overs, Gus tried to force the pace and was caught at mid on, Shaan found it hard to find the gaps in the field. David broke the shackles with a shot through the leg side that all but cleared the ropes and then added two more boundaries. With time running out David was bowled for 20, soon followed by Sam Norley caught behind for a single.  

Matt Dipple added some urgency to the running in scoring a dozen runs that took Middleton past 100 in achieving a sub par score of just 103. The examples from the World Cup in New York gave Middleton some hope of winning the game, but the bowling and fielding would need to be exceptional.

Matt Dipple bowled a tidy first over, and was very well supported by Anirudh, four overs for eighteen and Rob Barton.  After 10 overs ISIS had scored just 47, but had lost no wickets. Gus and Tim Riley bowled the first overs of spin for MSCC. Gus settled into a good length after getting away with 2 short balls in his first over. Tim had an appeal for LBW first ball turned down but was successful with his second ball, the umpire being left with no choice. In Tim’s second over a ball which was just as straight was turned down to the home team’s bemusement. Two balls later the ISIS no 3, Kumar lofted the ball to the boudary just out of reach of the fingertips of Shaan.

Shaan bowled two tidy overs for 10 more runs while Matt Dipple returned to the attack for the  final act. Matt dismissed the second opener clean bowled and picked up a second  wicked caught an mid on. From nowhere Kumar unleashed a massive six high into the branches of the oak tree, a woeful cry came from Mark at third man, “that’s going to hit my car.” With three overs left ISIS needed 14 runs to win.

Tim came back onto bowl, Kumar was lured into trying to clear the boundary at mid on, Mark mindful that his car had been targetted made sure of the catch. Matt’s final over went for 6 runs  leaving the visitors requiring four to win from the final over.

The first ball was left by the new batsman, the second was a catch to Anirudh at Mid off. The excellence of that catch was not mirrored two balls later when four fielders combined to allow a single to become a two compounded with an overthrow for and extra run. With two balls left the scores were level. The fifth ball just missed the leg stump, but the final ball was punched to mid on with ISIS very pleased to have such a tight game.

While the game had finished Peter van de Kerkhoff had both cooked the food on the barbeque and manned the bar, Andrew and Rona were checking up on him from departures at Heathrow. Howard continued to man the bar as the players from both sides unpicked the bones of the match as Simmo made sure everyone knew the outcome of his game for the Over 60s XI!