England League and Cup Discussion

[wolfberries]

Gold Prospectors X1 wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 5,654 7,321
Batting - Middle Order 5,171 4,922
Batting - Tail 2,924 2,984
Bowling - Seam 4,018 (16) 7,415 (6)
Bowling - Spin 6,521 (4) 6,860 (14)
Fielding/Keeping 8,071 8,553
Overall 98,884 118,721

Result: wolfberries won by 82 runs

Another win today, could have played another prospect but I didn't scout our opponents this time.

[casperj]

Probably did well to get a draw after this over!!

4.1 2 Dalgleish to Issa : Full-toss on the leg stump. Issa whips it to deep midwicket and runs a couple.
4.2 4 Dalgleish to Issa : A wonderful back foot punch through the covers, supreme timing on that and the ball races to the boundary.
4.3 4 Dalgleish to Issa : [misfield] Poor fielding by Asela! Issa skips down and clips the ball over mid-on. It lands in the deep and rolls towards the ropes, two fielders converge, Asela gets there first and stops it, then stumbles and lets the ball dribble into the ropes.
4.4 4 Dalgleish to Issa : Short of a length outside the off and pulled hard to the midwicket fence. The crowds burst out in chants, claps and drumbeats!
4.5 4 Dalgleish to Issa : Full and driven straight back down the ground for four. Replays show that actually took a slight deflection off of Elton's boot and wrong footed Forrest at mid on.
4.6 6Dalgleish to Issa : The ball is out of here and there is the sound of a car windscreen. A reminder to all us to update our insurance

End of over 5 (24 runs) - FPCC England(48-0). 103 runs required from 15 overs. RR 9.60 RRR 6.87
E. Issa 37 (20b), M. Elton 11 (10b), G. Dalgleish (rfs) 1-0-24-0

Would have won without conceding 18 off the last over!!

FPCC England Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 6,966 5,623
Batting - Middle Order 4,775 4,151
Batting - Tail 3,754 2,237
Bowling - Seam 6,347 (16) 5,343 (16)
Bowling - Spin 4,507 (4) 4,986 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 5,991 6,770
Overall 106,099 92,481

Match tied

[casperj]

Got by far the weakest team in the league today, so have played a weakened side.

Fast/Fast-Meds been predictably inert on a Sunny/Uneven, although did expect better given the quality of the opposition. Van Schoonhoven going for 9 an over isn't great, but *should* be able to chase this down OK.

W. van Schoonhoven (lfm) 4-0-36-1, L. Nilanka 28 (20b), I. Mullet 0 (0b)
End of over 20 (8 runs) - South Yorkshire CC(124-4) RR 6.20

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs The Middle Stump Lubricators
League Twenty20 3.3

Weather Sunny
Pitch Sticky

At home today to a team roughly similar in strength to us. Our toss winning streak has continued, and we plonked The Middle Stump Lubricators in to bat. As I've commented before, the T20 chores are managed by my 2nd XI, with the bowlers ranging from 22 to 27 years old, with a rainbow mix of - accomplished, expert, outstanding, spectacular and exceptional summaries. Naturally this requires a little careful management, second-guessing and a huge slice of luck in the bowling order! I think we got relatively lucky today, restricting the oppo to -

End of over 20 (9 runs) - The Middle Stump Lubricators(122-9) RR 6.10

Pick of the crop was Ivan Barras (rws, outsanding summary), who took 4-25, removing their best batsman and slowing the late stages acceleration with three timely strikes.

I think 123 is gettable. I've noticed sticky seems overly more easy on a sunny day.

Cue that remark coming back to bite me up the bum!

[Atko]

Halfway and my two openers are tearing up the joint -

A. Daraz (rfm) 3-0-33-0, L. Bozzelli 35 (26b), B. Cromberg 45 (34b)
End of over 10 (12 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(81-0). 42 runs required from 10 overs. RR 8.10 RRR 4.20

Way ahead of the curve - can't see us messing it up from here ...


EDIT : Of course, directly after this post a wicket fell!

[casperj]

Got by far the weakest team in the league today, so have played a weakened side.

Fast/Fast-Meds been predictably inert on a Sunny/Uneven, although did expect better given the quality of the opposition. Van Schoonhoven going for 9 an over isn't great, but *should* be able to chase this down OK.

W. van Schoonhoven (lfm) 4-0-36-1, L. Nilanka 28 (20b), I. Mullet 0 (0b)
End of over 20 (8 runs) - South Yorkshire CC(124-4) RR 6.20

Both openers got in, so ended up being a very comfortable win!

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 8 wickets
L. Kung (lf) 4-0-23-1, D. Mckenzie 1 (1b), J. Wambua 48 (35b)
End of over 15 (2 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(125-2) RR 8.33

[spark]

J. Westerveld (rfs) 4-0-27-0, A. arap Kipchoge 11 (8b), D. Vadher 71 (60b)
End of over 20 (6 runs) - Danger Hotspurs(180-3) RR 9.00

Dry pitch and I was not confident of doing well in the chase with that total to overcome. A few 14+ run overs really hurt us. My least experienced bowler had the best figures with 1-24.

I. Mureithi (rws) 4-0-41-1, M. Schmidt 71 (48b), I. Dennehy 5 (2b)
End of over 18 (7 runs) - Ruff Royals(161-3). 20 runs required from 2 overs. RR 8.94 RRR 10.00

We've done better than I expected with a couple of overs to go. I suspect that we're going to fall just short. Schmidt was dropped earlier on; can he bring the points home for us?

[Atko]

Comfortable win in the end by 8 wickets with a couple of overs to spare. Baz Cromberg, our understudy keeper, finished unbeaten on 66. Pleasing was Bozelli's knock of 35 off 32 balls. These two guys will be transitioning to seniors over the coming weeks/months (they currently come in to sub for the Nats guys when they're away), and a bit of extra form never goes amiss.

The win was slightly against the numbers, with the oppo pipping us in all areas except tail and fielding -

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns The Middle Stump Lubricators
Batting - Top Order 10,833 12,528
Batting - Middle Order 7,938 8,740
Batting - Tail 5,651 4,662
Bowling - Seam 10,603 (16) 11,655 (12)
Bowling - Spin 10,625 (4) 11,521 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 14,367 12,774
Overall 188,175 195,390

Our first win, and it will lift us off the bottom of the table, although our NRR is still gonna stink after last weeks thrashing from The South Hill Slammers.

[spark]

Ruff Royals won by 5 wickets

We did it on the last ball after Schmidt got out for 81 on the penultimate ball.

Danger Hotspurs Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 13,308 14,318
Batting - Middle Order 11,434 11,794
Batting - Tail 5,717 4,770
Bowling - Seam 14,277 (8) 12,846 (8)
Bowling - Spin 14,519 (12) 13,129 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 16,985 17,379
Overall 239,187 235,977

I did not expect to be on 8 points after 2 games. I am fully aware that a good start to the season can become a relegation battle so there'll be no resting on my laurels.

[spark]

W. Paterson (lfm) 8-0-73-1, J. Vasquez 8 (5b), K. Fuls 6 (7b)
End of over 40 (11 runs) - Ruff Royals(234-4) RR 5.85

Uneven pitch so it's a decent score. Vinson got 52, Foot 52, and Howe 87.

R. Reynolds (rfm) 1-0-8-0, D. Schoeman 7 (7b), K. Warner 10 (20b)
End of over 6 (8 runs) - Zippys Rainbow Destroyers(22-2). 213 runs required from 34 overs. RR 3.67 RRR 6.26

A good start from Pithey with 2 early wickets.

[Atko]

Sledgingshire vs The Raging Speed Horns
League Youth 2.1

Weather Sunny
Pitch Uneven

A very tough challenge today as we travel to Sledgingshire to take on the strongest team in the league. Not a matchup I would have wanted this early in the season, with us some 17k short of our opponent's ratings.

We won the toss and sent the oppo in to bat - I tend to feel more confident of chasing a total with a weaker side than I would be of them posting anything challenging. The pitch does no favors for my primarily spin attack. I'm still employing one of the batsmen (McSpank) as a part-time seamer; his career figures are - 15 matches, 144 balls bowled, overall figures of 1-110 . To be fair, his economy rate of 4.58 is perfectly fine for his role, which is to bowl four opening overs before the spinners come on.

As feared, the oppo got off to a scintillating start, belting a hundred runs off the first 16 overs for no loss of wickets. After that we managed to pick up a wicket here and there, but with a solid platform built, Sledgingshire scarcely dropped the pace, and managed to post a daunting score of 251-6.

[spark]

Ruff Royals won by 100 runs

Zippys Rainbow Destroyers Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 5,948 7,139
Batting - Middle Order 4,006 5,027
Batting - Tail 3,902 3,805
Bowling - Seam 5,840 (24) 7,396 (32)
Bowling - Spin 8,527 (16) 8,200 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 6,942 8,484
Overall 106,929 123,320

A comfortable win really after we got a good total. Pithey took his best figures of 5-23 to show us what we're going to miss in about a month's time. Buck was also good with 3-15.

It's good to get some points on the board.

[Atko]

A mighty effort from my boys, but they just fell short -

End of over 40 (13 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(245-8). 7 runs required from 0 overs. RR 6.12 RRR 0.00
B. Spinoza 4 (3b), L. Delameter 26 (16b), J. Lampard (rm) 8-0-50-2

Sledgingshire won by 6 runs

Match Ratings
Sledgingshire The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 7,647 5,795
Batting - Middle Order 5,264 5,900
Batting - Tail 4,448 3,992
Bowling - Seam 6,319 (24) 6,032 (12)
Bowling - Spin 6,673 (16) 6,852 (28)
Fielding/Keeping 9,162 7,988
Overall 124,780 115,754

The oppo have dipped and we've improved a bit, so the ratings gap wasn't too pronounced. We were always behind the 8-ball though. A sluggish first twenty overs put a lot of pressure on us in the run in, and needing 162 off the last 20 was a tough ask. We nearly did it - with three overs to go and a set batsman (McSpank again) on 65 from 43 balls, 38 to get from the last three overs looked a possibility, but alas 'twas not to be. Great game though, and looks like we should stay up, which is all I ask this season.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries YorkshireTykes
Batting - Top Order 7,026 8,185
Batting - Middle Order 5,562 5,752
Batting - Tail 3,049 3,741
Bowling - Seam 7,582 (12) 7,316 (28)
Bowling - Spin 6,945 (28) 7,254 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 8,668 8,493
Overall 121,186 128,943

Result: wolfberries won by 7 runs

Very happy with the win, and the choice of a Dry wicket certainly helped methinks.

[Atko]

Ffoh vs The Raging Speed Horns
League One Day 1.1

Weather Sunny
Pitch Uneven


Big match day and we're off to visit Ffoh, who, if you're into numbers, are the top rated team in tier 1 - at least on the basis of their first game. Full strength teams for both of us by the looks of things, so should be a belter,

Ffoh won the toss and elected to have a bowl at us.

So far so good -

S. Mullen (rfs) 3-0-14-0, J. Shalidor 69 (73b), H. Charlton 22 (24b)
End of over 23 (3 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(124-1) RR 5.39

Looking to be compiling a challenging target here...