I was still down on one knee, begging the ball to get some legs and scramble over the fielders head for six. Time seemed to have slowed down. Matrix Style!!!!!!!!!! :gundown :ninja Your mission James and Jack if you so choose to accept it............Dunno where I was going with that.
Anyway the ball, that is what I was watching, James is not Neo and Jack is not Trinity (even though his mum is a bit.......) THE BALL!!!!!!! Right, the cricket match, I'll stop getting distracted.
Shafayat was the fielder and he had positioned himself squarely underneath it. The ball went closer and closer.......
.......................
It flew towards him and straight into his hands
HE SUDDENLY SPILT IT, TOWARDS THE ROPE!!!!!!! Unfortunately though he recovered just in time and ended up looking like he was trying to lay an egg, which was just wrong He must have had about 30cm spare room. It was so close to being a six, it was just unfair. I was gutted.
I slowly got of one knee and begun to trudge back towards the pavillion. I heard footsteps behind me and saw Swann and Jefferson come running up. Jefferson shook my hand as Swann spoke,
"I just wanted to say, no hard feelings over what happened out there. That was a fantastic knock, I look forward to seeing you in the England camp soon. There will always be a place at Notts for you."
"Cheers for that, Swanny, keep up the good work for England."
We shook hands and I continued with my slow walk back to the pavillion. I then noticed I was getting cheered of the field by both the Glamorgan and Notts fans. I raised my bat to all parts of the ground as I walked off. It really did cheer me up to see such support from the crowd and I was pleased they had enjoyed my innings. There was only just an over and a ball left, so Crofty and Dizzy wouldn't have to survive for much longer. It had been a good day's job
If you have seen the film "The Omen" you might find the image of Graeme Swann in the below picture interesting. I have no idea, how it happened. Say if you know what I mean
Back in the pavillion, the lads all gave me a round of applause as I appeared through the door and Dizzy gave me a high five as he jogged out to bat. Mark came over,
"I think that makes up for you running me out "
"Me? I am soooo offended. You just need to lose weight "
We both cracked up and gave each other high fives. The coach came over as well,
"Well Tom. That was a superb knock there. A really well paced innings. You kept the scoreboard ticking over and didn't get bogged down and ended up with a fantastic strike-rate. Really am proud of the way you played today. You are becomng a very important man in this team."
"Wow coach, cheers. I am just happy to hopefully have got us in a winning position We just need to bowl well now."
I had been dismissed with the score on 251 and we were now 8 wickets down. Crofty was looking in really good touch and Dizzy can bat, proven by the fact that he has a double century to his name :cool: Dizzy managed to get three of the last ball of Swann's over, which meant that in his sole over, Swann had been spanked around for 16 runs, but got the wicket of me. Me being so awesome () meant that he should probably be happy with that
Sidebottom was due to bowl the final over. Unfortuately for us, it was a cracker of a final over. He got Crofty out with a slower ball and then Dizzy got run out on the last ball of the innings when trying to get a second run. It was a slight anti-climax for the team, but we could hold our heads high that we had recovered extremely well. We ended that innings on 257 all out.
257 was an average score for that pitch. It wasn't brilliant, but then again it wasn't bad. We would need to bowl tight. I wasn't particularly looking forward about having to bowl 9 overs now after just scoring a century, but as we only had three pace men there wasn't much choice. Myself and Matty had been the key men in that innings. Matty had been unlucky and had looked in good form, but had been cheated by a rubbish decision by the umpire. Apart from that, the only other batsman apart from me to get into duble figures had been Rich and he had been on debut ffs. It rally did highlight how weak our batting could be at times. Crofty could not always be relied on for cameo's at the end and it was up to the batsmen to make big scores.
Francis for Notts had been superb with the new ball and it had been very hard to score of him when he was bowling. This was reflected in his figures. Apart from that it had been a pretty consistent performance by the Nottingham guys and they had all chipped in with wickets. Matty came over,
"Great knock today, Tommy. I might have to cripple you, so you don't play in the Ashes one day "
"Ah, well that is a long way off and you can't really tell how my career will shape."
"Well you definetly have potential, and you have a good eye with both bat and ball. Anyway lunch, time to eat some of this crappy Pom food."
"Hey, this is luxury to what you convicts would normally get "
As we all settled down to get lunch, the TV (which had Sky Sports News on) showed the scorecard and bowling cards from the match so far. Then a horrific pic of me appeared on the screen, but we couldn't hear what was being said as it was on mute. Luckily no one noticed.....
Towards the end of the lunch break, whilst I was finishing off my jacket potato, cheese and coleslaw (that makes me hungry thinking about it ) Mark stood up to tell us about the plan, for how we were to win this,
"Ok, gents. Well batted, Tom, Matty and Crofty. We were steady in the middle overs and accelerated nicely at the end. Now we need to focus on the ball. Dizzy and Cooky, you guys are gonna have to be keeping it tight in these first few overs and the same applies to you Tom. The spinners are going to be key, in maintaining control. Just make sure that throws are backed up and there no major errors......."
"I WANT TO RAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Tom?"
"Sorry, just got that in my head."
That was embaressing :o Quality track though for a night out. It was time to go out there and cause mayhem with the Notts boys and with this beat in my head I was fired up!!!!!! It was going to be close though.
Good solid score there, although still a long way to go. Going to have to round that century off with a couple of wickets if you're going to win this one!
Good update and writing, Tom, was a good read from start to finish. Well done on getting out, by the way, did it in style.
Croft and Dizzy didn't put on many runs after you got out but Croft did well to make such a score. A decent score however and one that you could defend. Good luck with the bowling.
When Swan himself had to wait for long time to get into English regular playing XI, how can he welcome you Tom for the National call This story is going brilliant as ever.. I am reading it regularly, Tommy! I hardly find time in posting in Planet Cricket.
LOL! Top update. lmfao at the I want to rave in the middle of the coach speaking. Boo at you getting out for an even hundred, if I was Swann I would have given you hell for not being able to go on with the innings. Haha nah good stuff Tom.
Excellent writing there, great comedy as usual! Hopefully you can bowl a few tight overs and help win the match with the ball. kiu!
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Especially when suspense gets into it's best. 
) THE BALL!!!!!!! Right, the cricket match, I'll stop getting distracted.
He must have had about 30cm spare room. It was so close to being a six, it was just unfair. I was gutted.
