Story Three Lions on the Shirt? - Match Day: Northamptonshire fight back!!!

[surendar]

lol :laugh I think, fielder should have caught and crossed the ropes. Suspense in any forms is always entertaining for the readers.

Keep up the great works.

 

[Pakistani Army]

Great works Tom. I am really enjoying this story.

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Great work. Great presentation!

 

[Highlander999]

Sunday 30th March

Streak had just smashed the ball straight back over my head. The big question was, would it be a six or would Darren catch it? The wind was going down the pitch so giving quite a bit of distance to the ball. Things didn't look to good for me.

Eventually the ball started to fall but it wasn't quick enough!!!! It was definetly going for six

As it passed over Darren's head he made a desperate grab for the ball with a huge jump. He just managed to get the tops of his fingers around the ball and pluck it out of the air. He then managed to fall forwards so that he didn't land on the rope.

WHAT A CATCH :happy

The team all came running in to celebrate. The game was safely ours now. All we had to do was skittle the tail over. Team morale was excellent

It didn't take us long to finish the match up. Myself and Martin bowling in tandem managed to pick up the final wickets with me bowling Piper first with a perfect yorker which re-arranged his stumps very nicely from where I was Martin then got Ashley Giles who played on while attempting to cover drive him. I picked up the final wicket of Carter who missed the ball completely which went through the gate. I had excellent bowling figures

We had won :happy:happy:happy

After a pretty poor batting display in the First Innings we bowled really well in the final innings to secure the match. However the gloom of the upcoming court case began to hang over my head. While evryone else was celebrating I began to feel pretty dispirited. Eventually I turned my phone on. There was a message.

"Dear Mr Baker, this is Mr Jones from Kent County Council. The charges have been dropped. You don't have to go to the hearing. Also well done in the match"

It turned out Mr Jones was a big fan of Kent Cricket Club and he didn't want their rising star to go to jail. I joined in the celebrations with everyone after I announced the news. Nothing like a good bit of corruption. Jimmy was awarded the MOM which he deserved for his excellent all-round performance.

That night we hit the local bars again. It was a great time although I am beginning to learn I should not go out with Cooky as he attracts so much trouble. This time he got us in a fight with a bunch of sailors from the Navy after calling them "Gay, seamen" They were no match for us athletes though and we were able to run away. Cooky also nearly set fire to my hair after trying to see if tray of flaming spirits would sit on my head.

It didn't

I staggered back home after getting a taxi but found I had lost my keys, after leaving them at the ground, so I had to climb up the drain pipe and in through the bedroom window. I collapsed on the floor and passed out. Tomorrow I would have a raging head ache. I needed to ease up on the parties. But we had won, I was not going to court and life was good.

 

[ivanvdm15]

wow amazing catch their and well congratulations on win
great story keep it up

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Great catch! Great win in the end and congratulations on your 4 wickets!
KUTGW!

 

[gutterman]

wat a superb catch a superb win congrats and kutgw

 

[kookaburra69]

Great work mate,good luck for the next match.

 

[OrderDX]

great win for Kent and great bowling by you corruption lol great read as always keep it up!

 

[Pakistani Army]

Great catch from Darren. Great bowling from you Tom. Your bowling has developed very nicely. Keep up the super works.

Who's going to have a hangover in the morning?

 

[Hellgood]

Nice story KUTGW!

 

[gutterman]

dont ever try the flaming spirits thing for real it hurts alot if it gets you. i'd know i was stupid enough to do it with my mates.

 

[surendar]

How huge was that jump, Tom? I remember a similar jump made by Sehwag in last match as well but Viru fell down badly.

Keep up the fantastic works!

 

[Highlander999]

Monday 1st April

I woke up on the floor of my room with a spliting headache. It felt like someone had a sledge hammer and was hitting me with it. A new month and some new rules. EASE UP ON THE PARTIES. I crawled downstairs and made myself a cup of coffee and had some toast. I then switched the TV on. It was Sky Sports review of the weeks's actions.

It has been a good week for domestic cricket even with England crashing out of the World Cup. Firstly in Canterbury where Kent had an emphatic victory over Warwickshire with a half a day left.

Middlesex had a 100 run win over Nottinghamshire after two poor first innings total from Notts let them down.

Durham played host to one of the most exciting games ever to grace Chester-Le-Street. Batting first Durham declared on 297/6. Worcestshire then made 327 all out, to take a slender lead. Durham were then bowled out for 236 leaving Worcestshire an easy total to chase down. They were not able to do it however with their last wicket falling with only 1 more run required for the draw.

The match at Northampts was a high scoring affair with Leicestershire eventually prevailing by 4 wickets. A good start to the up and down Foxes. Can Nixon and his men make this a good season?

Up in Yorkshire, Somerset were completely thrashed by a very confident Yorkshire side. Gough and his boys made two good scores when batting and then skittled Somerset very easily. Somerset have a good squad this season and will be looking for much better results. The dream start for Yorkshire however.

Some Pro45 matches now.

At Sophia Gardens Glamorgan have been struggling recent seasons. Things didn't look to bad when they restricted Essex to 182/4 of their 45 overs. Their batsmen put up a good fight but it was not quite enough as they were bowled out for 178. A positive start for Essex but Glamorgan should not be to upset with that performance and hopefully this season they can begin to shrug off previous poor seasons.

On a bowlers pitch up in Gloucester, the away team, Northants did well to make 160 in swinging conditions on a green pitch. It was always going to be a tough total to defend however and as the day went on and conditions improved the home team had no trouble in chasing down the score.

Back in Middlesex, they played host to Lancashire another side with potential this season. Lancashire batted first and made a very competitive score of 236/7. Middlesex facing an uphill battle made a fight of it but were just too slow and could only make 201/7 of their 45 overs.

After a close win in the 4 Day format, Durham would be hoping to beat a strong Surrey side with home advantage. Batting first Surrey posted a very good total with good knocks from Butcher and Ramprakash, ending up on 231 All Out. In response Durham had a poor start and never recovered only managing to make 217/7 with Collingwood making a nice half-century.

The final match in this round-up was at Hove where Sussex were hosting Derbyshire who were looking to bounce back from their defeat to Kent. And bounce back they did. Put in to bat, they toiled to make 170/6 with Mushtaq Ahmed causing a few problems for the Derbyshire bowlers. With such a low total to defend Derbyshire needed to bowl well. They did this very well and managed to prevail over a much superior Sussex side. A good win for Derbyshire.

So that rounds up the matches for this week. A few very exciting games there. Now let's take a look at the tables.

(I'll just be focusing on Kent's tables) In the Pro45 for Division 2, there are 5 teams all on 4 points leading the table, with Somerset top on Net Run-Rate. Yorkshire are second while Kent are third. Kent have made a very solid start to the season with the young-gun of Tom Baker causing quite a stir. A future England player. We hope so. At the bottom of the table Warwickshire, Durham, Scotland and Sussex languish there. Scotland have yet to play a game however, but Durham and Sussex would have wanted better starts.

In the Frizzel Championship Suusex have made an excellent start with 2 wins out of 2 and gaining a few bonus points to race to 37 points. However Gloucestershire, Middlesex and Kent are all firmly on their tail with 100% win records out of their first games. At the other end of the table Hampshire have lost both of their two opening games with Surrey and Nottinghamshire bringing up the tail.

That had been very interesting viewing. I had been mentioned now and there would be quite a lot of pressure building up on me to perform in the next match. I turned the TV off and looked into my diary. We had a Pro45 match against Leicestershire on Wednesday. It was still only 10:30 and we didn't have to arrive at the Ground for training till 1 (We were being given a lie in :happy)

I decided to make myself some lunch, a Caesar salad with tomato soup. Eventually it was 12:20 so I hopped into my car and drove (slowly ) to the ground. It was a pretty hot day for April and no sign of "April Showers" Hopefully this good weather would hold out. I arrived at the ground and pulled into my space at 12:45 with 15 minutes to spare. I got all my kit out and headed into the stadium.

 

[ivanvdm15]

Good review there and don't drink and drive , smoke and fly
KUTGW