Heaton Mersey Cricket Club

2nds are a Perfect 10

Written by James Emmerson
Saturday, 24 July 2010
Despite having only 10 players, Mersey 2nds pulled off a famous win at high flying Oxton today, winning by 11 runs. Photos Play cricket Scores: Mersey 177-9 (inns closed, 48.2 overs, 179 mins) Oxton 166 (46.4 overs, 176 mins) Points: Mersey 24, Oxton 9 What an afternoon! Amidst all the confusion and chaos of the day, I sit reflecting on a win that is as good as I have seen achieved in many years. No praise can be too high for the top ten Mersey men, who fought and worked, then fought and worked some more, to secure a morale boosting and thrilling win that makes a huge difference to the season. Your correspondent had an unusually good view of the action today, as I was drafted into the team when it emerged we only had nine players! We thought we had an XI when I arrived at Mersey in the morning, but things had changed before we left, and when we got to Oxton, there were only six Mersey players there, with Sajjad, Ali and Waqas still in transit. Colin selected me some whites out of the unwashed range available in his kitbag, Mike Parnell found a spare pair of boots in his car – hardly ideal preparation but needs must! To our great relief Colin won the toss and had no choice but to bat, and off we set. The batting ‘order’ was basically everyone pad up and ‘eeny meeny miny mo’. Colin opened with young George Ferrario, making his 2nd team bow, and they actually gave us a decent start, 28 on the board before George fell. Matt Parnell followed him in, and with the others having by this time turned up, we needed Waqas to hang around with an assured looking captain to try and give us stability. Unfortunately Waqas quickly departed, and despite some impetus from Ali Akhbar - including a truly enormous six – Sajjad’s unlucky dismissal left Mersey 99-5 in the 32nd over. Colin was still there, looking in great touch, and firstly Gareth, then Parnell senior, helped him add 69 crucial runs and take us to the unimaginable riches of four batting points. Colin’s strokeplay was becoming increasingly expansive, two maximums added to the 12 fours, and Asad and myself managed to help add another 9, and use up some valuable time, before I was really well caught down the leg side to end our effort on an exceptional (in the circumstances) 177. Colin’s brilliant innings deserved a not out at least, having batted one minute shy of three hours and faced 148 balls in the epitome of a captain’s knock. Oxton were under-strength too, but even so they will know they ought to have got the runs. That they didn’t was due partly to an approach to their chase which I couldn’t fathom, but also due to some excellent bowling and fielding. At times we only had two on the leg side but the discipline of all the bowlers was superb, which meant that there were very few free hits or easy runs. Matt recovered from a nervy start to bowl some great stuff and got the first breakthrough; Gareth then saw Waqas hold two fine catches and it was 47-3. In this time we bowled five successive maidens – with only nine outfielders, remember – and the Oxton players were making life hard for themselves. But captain Ian Gauntlett was joined by Ballard, and the game swung in Oxton’s favour. Ballard hit 18 off his first ten, but with the field retreating and gaps everywhere, he kept blasting away rather than just milk easy singles. At 106-4 in the 28th Oxton were in charge, but two key wickets changed all that. Firstly Gauntlett unaccountably drove uppishly to mid off (another fine catch, this time Mike P); then Ballard, having smeared two boundaries off Mike’s first over, tried again in his next and was bowled, to make it 118-6. We were all delighted he carried on playing the big hitter role but, like I say, it was strange that having set our field for us with his big hits, he handed us back the initiative. The confidence was growing amongst the guys and we simply kept chipping away, good tight lines from Asad, Mike, Sajjad and Gareth reaping their rewards. Gareth bowled young keeper Crowley with a beauty, and despite a couple of big blows from the last pair – who had plenty of overs in hand as well - Waqas held onto his third excellent catch as Cunningham drove loosely, and Mersey were absolutely ecstatic! We enjoyed our celebrations and deservedly so. We had pulled off an unbelievable win against one of the form sides this season, with two veteran players, two juniors and a non-player (me) as well as Ali Akhbar keeping wicket for the first time. Ali did really well, despite shelling one catch and also dropping a ball onto the helmet behind him, which yielded five penalty runs! Deary me today! But I could sense the belief growing as wickets fell regularly, and the memorable result which ensued was thoroughly deserved. I must also put in a word for Jake, who handled the scoring duties on his own while we were fielding and did brilliantly. It was not an easy position to view from, but despite a few distractions, he missed nothing. Believe you me, in these tight games, a top-class scorer is a vital part of the overall team effort. Next week we will attempt a more orthodox approach and hopefully put out an actual XI to welcome visitors Upton! Set as favorite Bookmark Hits: 266 Comments (0) Write comment Name Comment smaller \| bigger