PLANETCRICKET LEAGUE OVERVIEW
We faced a tough away game at the Cricketers National Ground against Borncricketers XI.
Battrick has summed the pitch and weather up quite nicely.
Welcome to Cricketers National Ground for the match between Borncricketers XI and BFN Bombers.
We can tell you that Borncricketers XI won the toss and elected to bat. The pitch is looking a touch on the green side. All the seam bowlers have been out there rubbing their hands on this partially cloudy and humid day.
Borncricketers XI have selected Mckenzie, Abdul kadir, Karthikeyan, Hocking, Angell, Bowler, Ahmed, Ali, Masilo, Tau, Alshaun.
BFN Bombers have picked Spiller, Barnard, Mainey, Gore, Nicholls, Furlong, Noon, Samuel, Singh, Breen, Bird.
Things started quickly, Abdul kadir both scoring well and departing quickly. It was always going to be a tough ask for our bowlers, but it was a decent start. Things went slowly but steadily, and spinner Breen came on to see what fortune he might bring, and on the 2nd ball of his 1st over he got rid of Karthikeyan. Breen was on fire and an over later he sent Hocking back for an early shower. We were on top of things at this point, and scoring was slow. Nearing the end of his spell Breen was still bowling well and got rid of Mckenzie who was proving a threat. Bowler came in and tried set the world alight, it didnt happen and he just trundled along. The innings went into sleep mode for a period of time, until Bird got himself some seed in the form of slow scoring Angell. Things still looked good, as Ahmed wasnt scoring horibly fast either. Singh came back, and decided Ahmed had to go, bringing Masilo in, this is when Ali exploded starting to hit everything. Masilo didn't score much, but he did it quickly which was needed until Singh got the better of him. Tau was the next to tumble, also to Singh. Samuel was also back to finish things off and got rid of the danger man at the time Ali, ending the innings having us to chase 188.
188 is a big total against a side like this, and it wasnt going to be easy. Things didnt start too well for us with Barnard going early. Spiller hung around a bit trying to keep things stable and seemed to find a good partner in Mainey, but he departed, and soon after so did Spiller. Key batsman for us, Gore was now in with high flying youngster Nicholls. Unfortunately Gore went an over later leaving us very very vulnerable to a score under 70. Nicholls didnt last long either leaving a few overs later. Furlong and Noon were left to save our pride and get some runs on the board, they went well getting a nice partnership going. Furlong got a bit hasty and got out, bringing in Samuel. they found the tail. Samuel tried to hand around with Noon, but it was too great a task for the mediocre bat. Once he left things were rather brief, with the rest of the tail tumbling around Noon.
The ratings show that once we broke the top order we needed to get through the middle alot better, but thats only one side of the story. On the other hand his seam bowling was just that little bit too much for us and it showed in the way we were dismissed. Mckenzie gets MoM but Ali is also a candidate with his quick runs at the end for them, and his 4 wickets for miserly runs.
What we can take away from this match is that Noon has proven a consistant performer under pressure like this, and our seam and spin departments arent too bad bar all-rounder Barnard. Finally we lacked a batter that played through from the start leaving the middle order with all the work.
In Summary:
Borncricketers XI 188/10 (45.4)
Mckenzie 53
Ali 25
Singh 4/38 (8)
BFN Bombers 105/10 (32.2)
Noon 31
Furlong 31
Ali 4/21 (9.2)
BFN Bombers lost by 83 runs.
