Scorecard

Burnham 2 v Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday on Sat 23 Jun 2012 at 1:00pm
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Lost By 58 Runs

Match report **Spoiler alert**
For those of you who either haven’t already been told or not seen the headlines - Waqar Ahmed is a quality bowler. Cricinfo has the figures to support that statement.

It was built up nicely as both were coming in to it having recently had similar (mis)fortunes; Burnham were struggling for a result having lost two on the bounce and us just struggling for consistency. Ok; feel free to correct me but I don’t actually recall there ever being a close game between us and Burnham when we’ve been on our travels? Sadly Saturday was no exception as we found out what it feels like to be well and truly Naqvi’d. With that went the opportunity of it being an invincible season…next year boys. Next year.

And it all started so well; Gibbo was simply unplayable and had them four down with just 14 on the board. I think the thoughts of ‘50 all out’ and ‘early finish here boys’ were a bit premature – in future we should probably save those until we’ve actually bowled the oppo out. Quite simply the fifth wicket partnership won Burnham the game as 14-4 somehow became 101-4 and those 87 runs knocked it right out of us. Despite it taking a good 30 overs for the partnership to flourish the warnings were there for us to take note of – you must give yourself a lot of time. More galling for us was the fact that when the partnership was finally broken the last six wickets fell for just 39. Yup, the proverbial, get one; get six. Ok, in fairness it was the last ten overs and they needed to get to 150 but there wasn’t too much on display to dispel our earlier optimism of a potential early finish. Still, where we were with ten overs left we could have quite easily been chasing anything in excess of 160.

Having lost Capi-tan Schreiber on Friday night, Private Ballbag stepped up well to finish off proceedings and claim two wickets. Although I liked his way of thinking – abuse the law of being able to bowl six bouncers in an over…the clustering on the pitch map was perfect. Gibbo, unsurprisingly given his first spell, claimed his customary five wicket haul and alongside Webbs who, yet again, bowled with an incredible amount of control kept Burnham below 150. I have to say that he was a tad expensive conceding 22, no not a typing error; 22, in an 18 over spell is completely absurd. Obviously I’m joking; the pressure he creates is unnerving – he’s just missing the wickets to reward him for the effort he puts in for the side.

Anyway, we can now see why they were so happy to just get 140. Really, they should have declared when the fifth wicket partnership was broken. Poor show to be honest. I mean, how good is this one bowler they have?

Very good as it turns out. As quickly as Gibbo had them four down; Ahmed went two better and had us six down. Not to take the headlines away from Waqar but I will go record and state that Flynny is a proper thinking mans cricketer. In a mere split second he was faced with a crucial decision; stay in his crease and remain on 0 or deny him the opportunity to claim all ten wickets. I can proudly say that Flynny’s heart, definitely not his head, was in the right place and happily saw himself off; the best Ahmed could do now was pick up nine. Good lad – well thought out. Obviously I’m joking but Flynny did you actually think there was a run there? Den (16) and Stoney (14) looked relatively comfortable but against a bowler of that calibre it only takes one lapse in concentration and it was game over for you; just ask six of the top seven – all back and unpadded before we’d even got to drinks.

To be honest we should have taken a leaf out of Jonno’s book, back away to leg and look to cart him over mid-wicket – in fairness it worked; Ahmed didn’t actually know where to bowl (until he finally found a way through Jonno’s defences). Rochy nobly stuck it out with Johno but once both were gone for 15 and 23 respectively the game was out of sight and the writing was very much on the recently refurbished changing room wall. Once Webbs and Willow were dismissed we’d been rolled for 82; Ahmed claiming an undeniably brilliant 8-43 from half the overs; 16 sounds about right I think. I know he’s a professional but with seven of his eight wickets all being bowled either he was deadly accurate or we had a defensive back line as disciplined as Blackburn’s. I’ll leave that one for you to decide…

On reflection, a day or so after the game, we can begin to liken that to a final exam – you knew exactly what the questions were going to be but for the life of you you couldn’t remember how to answer them. Annoyingly all we could muster was 5 points which I presume were for effort and transfer errors. Yet, we continue to bowl sides out and we remain fourth so it’s not all doom and gloom for the mighty Town. It’s now imperative for us to get off the mark at home next week to Boyne Hill. The tricky matches just keep on coming...

And one final thing – if Gibbo offers you medical advice; don’t accept it. Self diagnosing glandular fever…really?

Burnham 2 Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 4b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
8
140 (51.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Scott Gibson14.043056.002.14
Paul Jenkins6.021300.002.17
Duncan Johnson4.002000.005.00
Chris Bird18.0822211.001.22
Felix Hartley Russell2.00700.003.50
John Williams2.002100.0010.50
Josh Winfield5.0021210.504.20

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
6b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
7
82		        
Felix Hartley Russell Bowled  1
Matthew Denness Bowled  16 1
Dan Stone Bowled  14 2
Josh O'Flynn Run out  0 1
Duncan Johnson Bowled  23 1
Josh Winfield Bowled  0 1
Paul Jenkins Bowled  2
Chris Rochfort Bowled  15 1
Chris Bird Caught  1
John Williams Caught  2
Scott Gibson Not Out  1 1

Burnham 2 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

  • Umpire :
    Panel
  • Scorer :
    Ian Martin