BELT @ Sherborne School 21/07/24

After losing the toss, the Wanderers were in the field for the all-day game against BELT. The overnight rain was still on the grass making the outfield very slow, but the wicket looked immaculate. Mark opened from the Pavilion end, bowling 3 maidens in his 5 over spell. Leo bowled well up the hill but struggled with consistency. Brett replaced Leo (0-11) and got into his stride early on, putting pressure on the opening pair. Mark (0-11) was replaced by Ollie who found getting the length difficult down the hill with the wind and came off after 2 overs with David coming into the attack. It was the 16th over when the breakthrough came with the ball nudged to square-leg, James put in a superb throw to Brett at the bowler’s end to effect a great run-out (46-1). A miss-timed pull gave Mark the opportunity to take a fine catch under the high ball to give Brett (1-33) his reward for a good spell of bowling (57-2, 19). David was using the track really well with the ball racing onto the batsmen and giving no opportunity to score. Ollie then came on up the hill and this really made a difference, with a good length and enough hint of turn to worry the batsmen. It was the 31st over when David (1-21) got his man, hitting him in-front of middle stump on the thigh pad which gave some element of doubt about the LBW (96-3, 30). Mark came back for a spell before lunch and got a cool C&B first ball (102-4, 34). His overall analysis was slightly tainted by the acceleration in mid-innings but 12-6-34-1 was a great return. Lunch was taken in the Skippers pub with great variety of food and good beer. With Ollie still tossing it up well up the hill, PW replaced Mark at the Pavilion end at a tricky point in the innings at 160-4 from 47 overs. He bowled well forcing the batsmen to play correct and straight for large parts. He nearly got the high scoring batsman when Skipper took the bails off but he was adjudged to be in. Ollie was rewarded for his efforts by a catch (not recorded) to dismiss the opening bat (172-5, 49). Ollie (17-2-78-1) completed his spell and James came on with a wicket in his second over when the batsman played down the wrong line and it took top of off stump (218-6, 56). In the same over a mix up by the batsmen gave Skipper the chance to roll the ball at the stumps from 10 yards to run-out the free-scoring batsman (219-7, 56). Next over PW (2-32) got 2 stumpings in 2 balls with Skipper’s help to leave himself on a hat-trick. Unfortunately the hat-trick ball was leg-side. James was hit over cow-corner a few times in the closing overs and BELT declared on 251-9 from 60 overs.

The Wanderers had approx 40 overs in which to overcome the BELT total and felt confident that the batting line-up would be able to do so. David (6) looked to be on the attack as he opened with Ollie but was undone by some late swing (9-1, 3). Leo joined Ollie and the pair batted well through to the tea interval. Leo (13) was looking comfortable until he too was undone by the swing bowling from the Pavilion end (31-2, 7). Tom and Ollie needed to re-group and create a partnership that went deep into the innings, but unfortunately Ollie slashed a short ball over the top straight which long-on came round and took a good catch (54-3, 11). James M (6) was out-of-form (having not played since his last appearance for the Wanderers last year) and he fell victim to the deadly swing bowling that was ripping through the Wanderers’ innings (67-4, 14). Skipper joined Tom, hoping to get another partnership together. This did not happen as Tom (35) was caught trying to clear the in-field (80-5, 17). By now the order of the day was to survive for a while and Mark did so letting balls go out-side off-stump and playing calmly good deliveries. It was a shame that Mark (20) was bowled playing an attacking shot when he had put a good shift into defending (121-6, 26). With 14 overs of the game left and 130 required, Skipper hit 17 off the slow bowler including 2 sixes over the fielders at cow-corner. This left 109 runs required off 12 overs, but with the return of the opening bowler, thoughts returned to survival. Brett (5) had played the perfect innings off 22 balls but he was also undone by the swing movement by the opening bowler (158-7, 8 left). Skipper survived an edge that flew fast to the keeper. Bob (0) looked to be comfortable in his role of blocking until he played down the wrong line (159-8, 7 left). James stuck to his task of getting the front foot forward and defending as his life depended on it. James and Skipper frustrated the BELT bowlers until Skipper offered a simple catch to the keeper leg-side, only for the keeper to drop it! Skipper took a single to give the last 2 balls of the over to James. The late swing drew a shot that was caught at short mid-wicket to bring in PW to face the last ball of the over. Unfortunately he didn’t get forward and was stranded in his crease as the stumps went flying. Skipper was left stranded on 58 as the Wanderers collapsed to 169 all out with 1 over left.

MOM: Skipper – solid innings and long shift under the lid keeping!

Catch of the day: Mark

Quote of the day: This is a bitter pill to swallow