'Interesting' Wicket combined with poor batting makes for exciting win at Ilston

The 3rd game of the season saw Niffy 2's travel to Ilston Abey as they looked to get their 1st win of the season under their belts. Prior to the game the umpires filled the batsmen on both sides with confidence as they advised both captains they had been sent to report on Ilston's wicket which had received some negative reports over the 1st two weeks of the season. The toss therefore took on even more significance than usual and the skip was incredibly grateful to call correctly and he invited Ilston to make 1st use of the wicket.

Dykey got things under way and bowled a tight 1st over which in the grand scheme of the Ilston innings proved to be tremendously uneventful. Rich Looms had the 2nd over and took a wicket with his very 1st delivery as he bowled Vival for a golden duck. Dykey then got in on the act with the help of the wicket as one kept low to bowl Shaff for 1. Ilstons number 4 then decided he'd had enough of the batting paradise and retired 'hurt' with a cut finger, which he got from a ball that he didn't glove behind........
Rich and Dykey were both bowling superbly and looked threatening with every ball and although the pitch wasn't the best, they certainly made the most of it by bowling tight and making it incredibly hard for Ilstons batsmen. Dykey then came back from being deposited over long on for 6 with the classic double bluff to remove the dangerous looking Javed. Deep square leg was sent back to the boundary to signal the bouncer but in came the yorker and Javed was plumb LBW. Number 4 then returned with his finger plastered but he was quickly back in the pavilion again as he nicked one to Waggon at 1st slip who juggled it twice and then as it was dropping to the floor smig swooped in to catch it on the rebound, much to the Niffy's delight. Rich finished his spell of 6 overs, 4 wickets for 23 to show that he's been a great addition to the 2's so far. Dykey continued his spell as Niffy saw the chance to skittle Ilston and combined well with Waggon from the other end and both brought a swift end to the Ilston innings, Dykey finishing with 10 overs, 4 wickets for 15 runs and Waggon only had chance for 3.4 overs and 2 wickets for 20 runs before Ilston were all out for 60 inside 20 overs.

The skip was thoroughly delighted with that and the halfway cup of tea tasted all the sweeter with an easy win in sight. Or so he thought. The wicket was poor but combined with some decent bowling from Ilston and some average batting from us saw us collapse to 23-3, with 22 of those runs coming from the bat of Badger. The skip tried to survive but at the same time couldn't get the ball off the square although Macca joined him and hit a quick fire 10 to take Niffy to 46-4 and with only 15 needed for victory it was surely only a matter of time. However somehow Niffy proceeded to lose the next 4 wickets for 3 runs and what should of been a simple task now looked like it was going to result in an embarrassing defeat. Connor came in hung around well with Dykey but he was eventually 9th man out with the score on 54 and the 7 runs required for the win had never looked further away.

However the skip had kept back 2 men he knew could be trusted to see the Niffy home as Rich joined Dykey at the crease. Now you could call that shrewd captaincy or you could simply call it luck as the skipper had only dropped them down the order as they had bowled the most overs and he never in his worst nightmare thought they would be needed. They both made batting look a lot easier than most of us had and ticked off the next 3 runs in singles until only 4 runs were needed for victory. Dykey then stepped up and caressed a cover drive to the extra cover boundary to seal the win and 25 points for the Niffy. A huge sigh of relief was let out in what was a ridiculous game of cricket, not helped by the wicket but also lessons need to be learnt with the bat if we are fulfil our potential this season.