2's lose again

On a cloudy but WARM Saturday, the Niffy headed in to Leicester to play the Caribbeans at Ethel Road. The pitch looked damp and green, unusual for their ground, and as Karl won the toss (maybe. No-one really knows as the coin was picked up before anyone could look by their ‘mascot’) the decision to bowl first was an easy one to take, especially as we were waiting for JH to turn up from work.
Muggle opened up and bowled some good lines, beating the bat 5 times in the 1st over, but still managing to get smashed for 6 over point. Nick then took the 2nd over, and was unlucky to have a chance put down by the diving Jono Hill at point. It would have been a good catch though.
The breakthrough came in the next over, with Muggle again bowling good lines and finding the edge for Rich to take a good diving catch away to his right in the slips. Tight lines continued to be bowled by Nick and Muggle, but any straying in line or length was punished. The next breakthrough came in the 9th over when Nick was finally rewarded for his tight lines, finding the edge of the other opener to give Rich his second slip catch of the game.
This prompted the Caribbean fightback, with their left/right hand combination making slow but steady progress against what was still good tight bowling. Matt proved that he is human and had an off day with the ball, bowing a fraction too short and being punished on a few occasions. He still showed that he is a dangerous bowler though with a number of good balls beating the edge.
Karl replaced Nick, and was the next to take a wicket. A good swinging delivery hitting their number 3 straight in front for an easy LBW decision. By this stage, the Niffy felt relatively in control. Runs weren’t flowing as freely as we thought that they might be, and wickets were coming. But, the Caribbean’s had other ideas and changed the way they were playing. From here on, it was all attack.
The dangerous Khan came in and played shots right from the start, And even though Karl was bowling tight lines, runs were still coming. After a quick 20, Gibbo was able to deceive Khan with flight and guile to bowl him, and followed up with a ball of, err, more flight than guile that was smashed straight at Ash on the midwicket boundary. Bowling the next guy for his 3rd victim, Gibbo should have run for the hills at the point as it was all about to go down hill!
His next over went for a couple. I don’t think this is the place for highlighting just how many runs came off that over, but lets just say it was a d’th’irty over. 
And the rest of the innings went pretty much the same was, with a number of lost balls and an early declaration at the end of the 42nd over with the score on 228-6

After an unusually lengthy tea, the Niffy got off to a bright start with the bat. Some fast attacking bowling was being dealt with easily by Ash and JH, with some lovely shots being played. Ash then got deceived by a good slower ball, and Matt didn’t last long this week after being given out LBW. It looked a harsh decision, but it just goes to show how you can go from the high of the previous week to the ultimate low the following week. Jono and Jonny then started repairing the damage and adding some useful runs until Jonny was late on a short ball and popped it up to square leg for an easy catch.
Even though we were well ahead of the run rate in the early stages, the runs now started to dry up, and inevitabley, wickets started to follow. Jono was caught in the slips, and Rich became the 2nd unhappy LBW recipient of the innings (2nd ball, not 1st guys). Will was providing good resistance down the other end and looked solid, ending the innings unbeaten, but no-one was able to provide much resistance. Both Nick and Muggle provided some lusty hitting for quick runs before both perishing, Karl looking to be positive as well chipping an easy catch. The Caribbean’s had brought back their quick opening bowler by this point as well, and he proved too clever for Gibbo, bowling 3 away swingers before bowling him with an in-ducker. Last man Ben was another unhappy LBW recipient, but by this stage the result was pretty much nailed on anyway.

To me, you could see that the difference between the sides was the depth of quality that comes from a 2nd team playing a 1st team. We matched them for large parts of the game, especially in the field, and its not often that you will come up against a former 1st class cricketer batting at number 8 in division 4, so lets make sure we take the positives from the game and look forward to next week.