A Year of Scottish Cricket: T20 Champions, Season Round-up and Rugby!!

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Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: A WIN!!!

2nd XI vs Hughenden - 50 over match

This match was one that we'd singled out a few weeks ago as a must win to keep us up above relegation and, thankfully, we delivered but it looked pretty close at one point. The pitch had been used the day before and was pretty good but every so often, in little patches, it would take off or just go along at ankle height. Fortunately these patches were mostly pretty wide so no one actually got out as a result of them.

We were looking to bowl if we won the toss so when we lost it we were surprised to be told that we'd be fielding. I took the second over and was fairly tight early on, bowling to two left-handers. When the other opening bowler got one of their guys stunningly caught at gully it brought a right hander to the crease and signalled the start of an erratic spell from me. Every time they changed over I bowled a really crap ball as my first to the 'new hand' and, despite their umpiring being seriously harsh, I bowled a fair few wides. Some of them were wide but to be calling a foot and a half outside off stump a wide was ridiculous!! Anyway, the captain persevered with me and I convinced myself it was going well in between overs so by my 4th or 5th over everything was going reasonably well again, albeit at a reduced pace due to fatigue from the heat. Their right hander was by now showing that he was their best batsman so I was really disappointed to have him edge it wide of the single slip and, after the slip had been moved wider, edge it between the slip and keeper. Several near misses later he obviously edged it to the keeper with his bat well away from his body only for the umpire not to give it!! I mean, if in doubt it's not out but it was really obvious cheating and I was not a happy bunny. A couple of shorter pitched deliveries later the skipper at mid-off told me to calm down and I had another one nearly take the edge at the end of that over before being taken off after an 8 over spell. The change bowlers got into their batting line-up (we had a strong bowling outfit, practically for the first time this season) but they couldn't budge the right handed no.3. Eventually he was out for 42 caught behind off the second change bowler who normally bowls spin for the 1sts but was having a go at pace today. The guy who opened the bowling with me last match was brought on with 7 or 8 overs to go and promptly took 3-0 in 2 overs!! I was brought back on and completely beat the batsman with an off cutter before yorking him. I still had time to deliver another wide though!! My final figures were 10-1-23-1 with 10 of those 23 runs being from wides. Overall I was disappointed with my bowling but I guess you have bad days as well as good ones. We bowled them out for 118 in the 48th over.

We were very positive at tea but were soon in trouble at 52-6, their opening bowler from their 1st team having ripped out our top order. The skipper who was taking a break from opening today and was batting no.8 came in and combined with the no.6 to knock off the runs in a really class partnership while I sat on the sidelines as next man in for 20 odd overs. The no.6 finished with 43* and, most likely, the man of the match award. All's well that ends well so it was a good day for the team and it's nice to have a win on a saturday for a change.

Next match is next saturday away to a team with an artificial (oh joy) or maybe on weds depending how soon I can get back from a cricket camp I'm going to in Edinburgh from weds-friday this week.

EDIT EDIT: (attempted) video quality was crap for some reason, dunno why.
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: Camp, injury and close finishes

Last week I went to a cricket camp in Edinburgh from Wednesday to Friday. The first two days were slightly dissappointing with fielding drills and nets being the order of the day. On the third day we did specific skills looking at front foot driving and back foot play in general in the morning, which was pretty useful but as the drive is already my best shot it wasn't exactly groundbreaking. In the afternoon we did bowling specifics with a Scotland A bowler giving each of us individual things to work on. The stuff he said to me was:
  • Use the left shoulder for power as well as direction - really snap it down and pull both forwards and down in order to improve carry and bounce. Make sure this arm is high and straight, trying too hard results in falling away in delivery.
  • Emphasise the follow through by really bringing your hands up to your armpits a la Allan Donald.
  • Run in much straighter and closer to the stumps (previously I'd run in and bowled from wide of the crease). The other guy there also said I should make my run up smoother and longer with bigger strides in order to increase momentum through the crease.
  • Structure your overs with the first and last 2 balls being line and length. The 3rd and 4th balls are the two to try variations with.
  • When shining the ball rub it on your sweaty shirt, it really works a treat!!
  • Try and work out a batsman's weakness and bowl it there (i.e. if he likes pulling and driving just bowl a good length, tailenders get yorked and legside biased players get it wide of off)
  • Bouncers go straight at the batsman's head/throat area so he can't get inside it or flash it over the slips.
2nd XI vs Garscube - 50 over match

The day after the camp finished I was playing away at Garscube in Glasgow with the second team. We'd beaten this team at home and had high hopes of doing the same away but the fact that they've got an artificial at home gives them a big home advantage. We lost the toss and batted first with the openers putting on a good partnership of 70 off 23 overs. One of the openers went on to score 54 before being run out which is the highest score by anyone in the 2nds this year. After the customary middle order collapse I went in at number 10 in the 47th over. I hit my first 2 balls firmly but straight to fielders and my third was also hit at a fielder but this one was fielding on the boundary so we ran an easy single. Next ball I middled a drive at mid off but the skipper called me through so I legged it and in doing so pulled a muscle in my left thigh. My 5th and last ball was full just outside off and I edged it onto my stumps trying to launch it over the bowler's head. We were all out for 142 off the last ball of the 50th over which was disappointing given our start.

After a nice tea we went out to bowl but my leg was playing up. I had to be taken off after my first over despite inducing and edge straight to first slip from their opener, which was promptly dropped!! I was moved to slip and told to try and loosen off my leg for a while. While I was there (second time ever, and the first was for about 3 overs) I missed a chance that went wide to my right and one or two that didn't quite carry. I had another go at bowling about 20 overs in and had their no.4 dropped on the boundary before their no.3 (and best batsman) drove me in the air straight to point and thankfully it was caught this time!!! Again, I only managed one over before being sent off to slip. My final figures were 2-0-12-1. Later on I was moved to gully and managed to miss another chance. The previous ball the point fielder told me to go in 3-4 yards, which I did, only for the batsman to clatter a cut over my head by about a foot - if I'd been back where I was I'm sure I would've caught it. A fairly disappointing day was brought to an end as blatantly cheating umpiring denied us a couple of lbws before they knocked off the runs in the second last over. If we hadn't collapsed in the middle of our innings and if I hadn't got injured I'm 100% sure we would've won. As it is we got a fair number of points anyway for having them 8 down at the end so we still have a 35 point advantage over our relegation rivals who we are playing next week. Until then I'm just going to be looking to rest up and see how things pan out.
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: Long time no update...

Right, kinda long time since the last update and I'm a bit short on time but I'll summarise the end to my season:

2nd XI vs Motherwell 2nd XI - 50 over match

We bowled first but they got 205-9 off their 50 overs. I bowled consistently and had the plumbest lbw I have ever seen turned down, as well as 2 nicks through between keeper and 1st slip. My final figures were 15-0-33-1 so I was pretty pleased with the economy rate, especially considering everone else went at around 5 an over. The guy who got off the lbw went on to make 50 and when he was finally out the rest collapsed, barring a quick 31 by their no.7, so if it was given we might have had them on the rack.

Our batting was a mess and we were bowled out for 46 with me making 2 before getting out trying to get the run-rate up considering we needed about 11 an over. Overall it was a bit disappointing given that they sent their 1st XI down after we'd rung them up to say that we would be fielding a weakened team, which we did.

Midweek XI vs Health Pros (the local hospital team) - T20 final

We moved pitches at the last minute because the one at our local rival's ground was sodden. Our pitch was ok so we played there and batted first. It was a bit of a shambles but we had reached 81-8 off 17.2 overs when I went in to bat. I scored 6 off 6 balls nudging the ball around and scored off every ball bar one, which I hit straight to a fielder. I was out in the last over with the score on 97 (making us all out) when I hit it straight down long-on's throat - incidentally the furthest I've actually hit it in the air, so I was fairly chuffed despite being out!!

I opened the bowling and it was obvious that I hadn't bowled for ages with me spraying it around a bit more than usual. They took 10 off my second over but I recovered well to finish with 4-0-19-0 and a dropped catch off my bowling at point. We bowled them out and ended up comfortable winners, despite me making a grevious fielding error: I judged how far away from the non-strikers end I thought I was before I looked up and ended up firing the ball through at head-height from about 10 yards, much to the bowler's chagrin!!

It was nice to win something this year and the team's collective joy was even increased when the handle fell off our Cup for winning the knockout competition in this year's T20!!!

Season round-up

My season was a little disappointing overall as I havn't batted nearly as many times as I was hoping, despite some good innings for each of the sides I played for. Onthe other hand my top score of 14 is my highest score in adult cricket so that was pleasing. On the bowling front I discovered that it's harder to dominate batsmen than I thought and my wicket haul is actually down on last year but this year I was opening the bowling much more regularly and was often bowling at the best batsmen in opposing teams. My final haul of 23 wickets at 17.70 is reasonable but the thing I was really quite pleased with was the fact that my economy rate for all cricket has fallen to 3.28rpo, a fall of more than 1rpo from last year. I was also the top wicket-taker for the 2nd XI despite playing less than half the games. My season was nicely capped by winning the Young Player of the Year award for the second year running at the award's night, so I was chuffed with that.

The Future

I havn't updated for a while because my A levels have been getting the way but I'll update with my rugby union match reports this season, as and when I can, if anyone's interested. As a taster, the first match of the season was today:

2nd XV vs St. Bee's 2nd XV -- Won 22-0

A good start to the season saw us score twice in the first 10 minutes and take a 12-0 lead into half time. The scrum was under pressure, which is something we'll need to sort for the next game. This was probably in no small part due to it being my first game at prop ever, but as the game wore on we improved and even took one ball against the head. The lineout on the other hand was fantastic. In another first, I was throwing in at the lineout but, even though I threw it over the top of the jumper twice, we won every lineout we threw in at as well as some of theirs.

In the second half we came out strongly and nearly scored again early on with our powerful no.12 getting just pushed out as he dived for the line. The backs spread the ball around, well supported by some powerful rucking and close support from our pack. Our pack incidentally consisted of 6 back row forwards, one debutant and an out and out prop - hence why I was playing prop and our scrums were suffering. On the bright side, it meant we had plenty of pitch-coverage, tackling ability and breakdown nous to allow us to dominate the breakdowns consistently. We scored twice towards the end of the second half as the fullback danced past at least 4 defenders to score and the no.8 (and captain) muscled over after breaking away from the back of a maul.

Overall it was a good win and keeping a clean sheet was a nice way to start. The scrum is an area singled out for improvement and the lineout could also do with one or two extra options but the backs and our breakdown performance was encouraging. Next game we're away at Merchiston Castle for one of the biggest games of the season, followed by a game against some touring South Africans.
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: T20 Champions, Season Round-up and Rugby!!

Congrats on the T20 triumph and on the season overall.
 
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