England League and Cup Discussion

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks St. Marks Hill Strollers
Batting - Top Order 13,388 11,388
Batting - Middle Order 11,369 10,980
Batting - Tail 5,638 4,588
Bowling - Seam 13,093 (12) 11,721 (16)
Bowling - Spin 13,974 (8) 13,142 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 16,042 14,132
Overall 231,299 205,658

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 20 runs

Div 2 T20 league seems much weaker than last season, although maybe the cup is still having an effect on some teams ratings. Was actually the highest rating team this week. Win moves us up to third.

[spark]

Home Snakey's Kent Stars
Away Ruff Royals
Ground St Lawrence Ground
League Youth 1.1
Date 12 Sep 24 10:00
Crowd 9,039
Weather Hot
Pitch Uneven

Should be a tough game. We were put in to bat first which is what I was planning to do anyway.

[spark]

T. Bernard (rm) 3-1-7-1, D. Howe 11 (19b), L. Foot 0 (4b)
End of over 21 (maiden) - Ruff Royals(84-3) RR 4.00

Not great so far. These are my two best batters so they're going to have to do a lot of the heavy lifting to get us to a sizeable total.

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs swinton sharks
League Youth 2.1

Weather Hot
Pitch Crumbling

Entertaining swinton sharks at The Horn today. The hot/humid spell continues to envelope the England scene, and as is our new norm, we're playing on a crumbler. The sharks rate about 7k better than us, although ratings have largely proved irrelevant in the league this season, with us sitting at 3rd and the sharks 5th. The oppo won the toss and decided to bat ( ), and have made steady but brisk progress. Actually, when I started to type this, they were at 88-2 after 17 overs, but in the 18th, our innocuous RFS managed to dislodge a couple of wickets, including the set batsman (54).

At drinks -

B. Spinoza (rfs) 4-0-9-2, W. Sexton 0 (6b), A. Omar 2 (7b)
End of over 20 (2 runs) - swinton sharks(91-4) RR 4.55

Still in the balance - fingers crossed we can winkle out a couple more soon into the session...

[Atko]

Well, we did knock over a few wickets after the break to have the sharks reeling at 119-8, but, as always seems to be the case, the opposition made an impressive recovery - including a 50-run partnership - to post what might be a match-winning score -

L. Delameter (lfm) 8-1-35-2, H. Kerr 32 (37b)
End of over 40 (3 runs) - swinton sharks(176-10) RR 4.40

Our inability to polish off teams we have on the ropes never fails to grind my gears

[spark]

S. McLatchey (lfm) 7.5-0-35-2, M. Niazi 16 (18b)
End of over 40 (5 runs) - Ruff Royals(149-10) RR 3.73

Quite possibly one of the worst batting performances that we've had in a while. It was their spinner that did most of the damage too, with 4-21, by taking out my numbers 2,3, and 4.

My bowlers haven't got a chance and we'll have to see what we can do in terms of damage limitation.

R. Reynolds (rfm) 2-0-20-0, L. Woolcock 8 (9b), R. Dowie 14 (10b)
End of over 3 (9 runs) - Snakey's Kent Stars(23-0). 127 runs required from 37 overs. RR 7.67 RRR 3.43

Sadly, we can't even slow the runs down with my best bowlers.

[spark]

Snakey's Kent Stars Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 7,941 7,277
Batting - Middle Order 5,694 5,572
Batting - Tail 3,807 3,650
Bowling - Seam 6,934 (32) 6,342 (32)
Bowling - Spin 6,814 (8) 8,638 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 9,229 8,632
Overall 128,204 122,252

Snakey's Kent Stars won by 10 wickets

That could have gone better. Possibly one of the worst performances that we've put in for a while. They won with more than 15 overs left so that's going to hurt the net run rate.

[Atko]

Well, it all went south - bundled out for 115 ...

Result: swinton sharks won by 61 runs

When your rookie average summary batsman top scores and bats through half the innings, while your specialists get knocked over for ducks and single digit scores, you know the writing's on the wall. I do feel somewhat stitched up by the ME, and will probably never be quite the same again.

The numbers at least suggest the best team won -

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns swinton sharks
Batting - Top Order 6,041 7,530
Batting - Middle Order 6,130 5,633
Batting - Tail 4,037 4,406
Bowling - Seam 6,189 (12) 7,171 (16)
Bowling - Spin 7,073 (28) 7,040 (24)
Fielding/Keeping 8,358 8,599
Overall 119,910 127,139

[spark]

Home Ruff Royals
Away Goondiwindi
Ground Ruff Royals CG
League One Day 2.2
Date 13 Sep 24 10:00
Crowd 21,226
Weather Humid
Pitch Dry

Important game at the top today. Earlier in the week I'm sure it was due to be hot weather which would have suited me fine. Humid is not so helpful to my spinners.

We lost the toss but I'm happy enough to be put into bat although I'm never sure if we're particularly good at setting a total in high scoring games. We shall see how it goes.

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs Inchigeela Angels
League One Day 1.1

Weather Humid
Pitch Sticky

2nd (us) vs 3rd (them) at The Horn today. Our Nat players are back so we are at full strength again, although the humid weather has finally tempted me to give Vinnie Saxon (RF) his first full cap (ya don't get one here for just subbing for Nat players ). The guy he replaces is a couple of levels better in summary, but RF vs RFS on humid sticky, plus wicket taking potential, plus needs the xp, plus two RFS's = bad, plus RF/LF attack is cool, plus, maximum attack variation, plus, well you get the idea.

We won the toss and inserted the opposition, and it's been pretty good so far -

M. Speed (lf) 4-0-12-3, M. Whipp 1 (1b), D. Saxbee 3 (11b)
End of over 14 (4 runs) - Inchigeela Angels(47-5) RR 3.36

New boy Saxon has had a couple of overs and bagged a wicket for 3 runs , while Max Speed is delivering the usual carnage with 3-12. Keep going lads!

[Atko]

End of over 25 (2 runs) - Inchigeela Angels(84-5) RR 3.36

Hmmm... one of those never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed pesky recoveries spoiling the fun here. This pair have added 38 runs against the run of play and gears are definitely starting to grind ...

[spark]

C. Bartlett (rfs) 5-1-17-1, I. Dennehy 0 (0b), J. House 17 (17b)
End of over 25 (5 runs) - Ruff Royals(134-3) RR 5.36

Okay so far but the usual wicket lost just before the break could be crucial as Schmidt was doing well with 60 from 70 balls. Dickerson also did alright with 43 but we're going to need at least one batter to get a big score.

[spark]

173-3 to 181-7 so 4 wickets lost in 11 balls and we're now going to be way below a par score. I would have thought that we'd need 250+. House is going to have to marshall the tail extremely well.

D. Arap (rws) 7-0-38-3, J. Westerveld 1 (1b), J. House 37 (46b)
End of over 37 (3 runs) - Ruff Royals(182-7) RR 4.92

[Atko]

S. Ravana (rfs) 9.3-1-25-2, A. Esler 4 (8b)
End of over 43 (maiden) - Inchigeela Angels(127-10) RR 2.95

Hmmm... well, we clawed it back in the end, but that total is 30-40 runs more than they should have scored - at least from my point of view; I imagine the opposition have an opinion slightly at variance with that

[spark]

C. Bartlett (rfs) 9.2-2-30-3, D. Combs 2 (7b)
End of over 46 (maiden) - Ruff Royals(215-10) RR 4.67

House did okay marshalling the tail although a couple of accumulator triggers didn't help his batting partner. He was eventually out for 61.

173-3 to 215 all out on this pitch is very disappointing. I don't think it's going to be enough as they won't be under much run rate pressure.