Story Club Life - The Diary of a County Cricketer [C2007]

[evertonfan]

A Different Gravy​

​

April 22nd - With barely a minute to reflect on my performance against Middlesex, I was quickly thrust into a game of one-day cricket against minnows Ireland. I was keen on scoring runs against them as with all due respect, their pace bowlers were hardly going to make any batsman soil their pants. What I was worried about was facing their two overseas spinners; Shahid Afridi and the efervescant Saqlain Mushtaq. No offense to Jamie Dalrymple, but if a spin bowler like him could tie me in knots then what hope did I have of succesfully negotiating these two? I could only hope it was the Old Trafford pitch that influenced my awful playing of spin in my debut.

No matter how many times I see a teamsheet with me in it, i'll always be full of pride.​

 

[Deleted member 13648]

Good look Matthew, you'll smash Afridi all over the park

 

[evertonfan]

Well he certainly won't be smashing me.

 

[plympilgrim]

good luck matt against afrdi

 

[Jaztheman]

matt v afridi, that will be good

 

[evertonfan]

I'd Have Bowled First Chilts​

April 23rd 2007 It's bloody freezin'! Is this classed as typical 'summer' weather in Ireland? In regards to the match, Chilts won the toss and chose to bat first on what looked like a bowler's strip. There were a lot of tinges of green and with this wind about the ball was likely to swing, and seam off the deck as well. You can't blame Chilts for batting though because as that old legendary cricketing proverb goes, "If you win the toss then 9 times out of 10 you will bat. On the other occasion you think about it, and then bat". I've always been a firm believer of this phrase and besides, I was quite happy to spend my morning in the warm hospitality of the pavillion until it was my turn to bat. Holy cow! I have to bat in this?!

Don't let the sun decieve you; I can safely say i've never played cricket in conditions this cold!​

 

[evertonfan]

Leaving a Marker​

April 23rd 2007 - A pretty decent day for me today but i'm annoyed with myself for giving my wicket away after making a positive start. I came out with the team in a bit of an embarassing ater we were reduced to 177 runs and the loss of 5 wickets. I thought i'd chance my arm against the lesser quality bowlers and it immediatley payed off.

After blocking my first few balls from Langford-Smith I decided to make my most of them open area down the ground. No man was back there so I played a powerful lofted shot over mid-on and it flew out of the ground for 6. Sweet.

Beat that Tiger; A drive that the Golfing legend himself would have been proud of.

I then proceeded in going after the ball hard and I was finding the boundary and when I wasn't finding the boundary I was still ticking the scoreboard over by running well.

Quick on his feet; The key to playing spinners well.

A risky shot to play, but without any slips or third man it's very useful.

But in the end it was my over exuberent running that saw to my downfall as I was runout by a mile to a fantastic throw from the deep. I really should have made the most of my innings and I really hate it when I give my wicket away; It means that the opposition didn't have to get me out and I just gave myself to them on a plate.

Out by a mile.

Despite my disapointing end, I was happy to be part of a good Lancashire batting card at the end of the innings. We reached a total of 300+ for the loss of nine wickets, thanks to some lusty hitting from our tail at the end.

Lots of the lads made starts but none of us could carry on to bigger scores.

A few decent contributions but the Irish bowlers tailed away towards the end.

There was still a lot of green in this pitch and desite our large total, I still believe this is a bowler's pitch. One that I can't wait to bowl on.​

 

[Pak_cricketer]

ouch.. 9 overs 99 runs!

 

[plympilgrim]

wow nice knock from mr evo there, keep up the neat pres

 

[GrayNicolls]

Good bowling by Ireland. Should easily win this one. MC did well.

 

[Jaztheman]

unlucky not to make your 50 but gave your wicket away

 

[evertonfan]

Doing it the Easy Way

April 23rd 2007 - It all turned out to be an easy performance in the end as Irish resistance proved to be a bit feeble. I had to wait until the 20th over to get my first bowl and i'll tell you now it wasn't nice stading at slip in the howling wind freezing my nips off. Anyway, all whingeing aside I bowled well again as I took 2 wickets; Both of which hit the stumps.

My first wicket was Gillespie. He was proving to be a bit of a tough cookie as he resisted all of our bowlers but in my second over I got one to nip back off a full length and his off-stump went for a walk.

Goneski! I just love it when those stumps go flying.


And the second one was the last of the innings; The second time in a week that i've sealed the victory for Lancashire. It was very similar to my first wicket as I set up Joyce with a double-bluff by putting a man out on the hook only to decieve him by bowling it full and straight, resulting in a cartwheeling leg-stump.

That is that; I wrap up another comfortable win for Lancashire.

Although it was a lesser opposition we faced today, I was still very happy with my performance and if I can keep picking up wickets against all opposition then my dream to play for England won't be far off. Another thing I enjoyed about today was the fact that I got to see a master at work. Murali bowled absolutley brilliantly today and every ball looked like taking a wicket. Many questions are constantly asked about his action which i'll admit is a bit dodgy, but nevertheless, he is an absolute stunner of a bowler.

Another emphatic bowling performance from the lads.

A couple for myself and Jimmy but Murali was the star today.​

 

[aussie_ben91]

Was those Irish guys borrowing you're everton bat? I can't quite tell.

G'stuff m8, loving the diary.

 

[plympilgrim]

keep up the great work, nice to see you bowl economically for your wickets

 

[evertonfan]

The Derby

April 24th 2007 - It's less than a week away until we journey across the penines to face the Yorkshire scum. Now admittedly derbies in cricket aren't as passionate as it's football and rugby counterparts but I still want to spank the scum just as I want Everton to hammer the dirty Kopites and the Saints to demolish the pie-eaters. I really wanted to improve my batting so i'm going to spend this entire week in the nets facing the spinners.

I'm also very excited at the prospect of playing at Headingly because of it's rich tradtion of England victories over there and given that it isn't too friendly to spinners, I shoudl be okay...​