When playing cricket, everyone has a dream day. Just a day that everything goes right. If you haven't experienced it yet one day you will. Today I lived the dream. Not only did I score 52, my first ever 50, I also took a wicket with my gentle bowling, and, most importantly, I took the winning catch of the last ball of the match.
I will tell you the tale of this day. We lost the toss and were put in, and our openers got us to a quick start, both scoring 29 to set us a good platform. We were about 105-4 in the 25th when I strolled to the wicket, and I told myself just to keep my head and don't play any silly shots, which are so often my downfall. I lost my partner with 117 on the board, but me and my skipper put on 82 for the 6th wicket, both retiring after 47 overs to give the rest of the team a bit of a bat. After starting slowly, I gradually worked my way into it, cutting and driving a few fours while keeping the singles coming. I scored my first six in senior cricket with a big hit over long on, and had the widest smile ever as I raised my bat to the pavilion after a drive through the covers brought up my 50. We ended on 215, and as I eat my lunch I stuffed myself thinking my part in the match was over. How wrong I was....
It was clear from the start that the opposistion has one thing in mind - the losing draw. They made no attempt whatsoever to surpass our total. So after about 16 overs where they defended their way to about 20 runs, I was shocked to find myself with the ball in my hand ready to bowl (my wicket last week was only my third in as many years) and after having an easy catch dropped at mid-off in the first over, I got my man caught at second slip in my second. I didn't get another but finished with the impressive figures of 5-2-6-1. My next moment in the game came after an impressive 7 wickets by our strike bowler, who showed devastating pace and a killer slower ball to rip through the batting line-up. The opposistion were 67-9 after 49.5 overs. For the last twenty or so overs we had virtually everyone crowded around the bat, to not much avail as almost all our wickets were bowled. So with our captain bowling his medium pace, and the last pair holding out for about six overs thus far, not much hope was held out for the final ball, even with 10 men crowded around the bat. But alas, the ball popped up a bit and came to me, one of three silly points, and after a little bit of a juggle which probably caused 10 heart attacks, I clung on, giving us an extra 11 points on top of the 14 we would have got for the winning draw.
As my teammates piled on top of me, I realised as club cricketers we don't play for glory or fame, we play for the respect and gratidude of our teammates, and that feeling inside of satisfaction. There is no greater feeling in the world.
Anywhere here are my match reports from my three games so far this season I wrote on another site: -
Had a party afterwards though and I was in a bad mood all night and my girlfriend got really pissed off with me because I had a go at her for saying it's only cricket. Probably should say sorry 
