http://sycl.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10732692
Optimism was high as the team left Abbeydale for Barnsley. This soon turned into frustration as sat-nav failure and childcare issues led to only half the team warming-up at 12h30 and this slow start was taken into the field as we won the toss and bowled. Changes this week saw vice-captain Butler, Waif, Crofty and Khuram come in for Patmore, Simpson, Nads (first team duty) and Bartles (back in Newcastle).
Thompson started fairly well, once he'd decided which end he was bowling from - he couldn't work out where the pitch was in relation to the changerooms. Ben Fielding struggled again and needs to find his consistency soon. Butts bowled to gully, Benjy gifted them 14 in his first over and then settled into a good line and length. Riaz is still struggling to shake-off his first winter for 7 years and Waif, after attempting to set his own field (lasted 1 ball) bowled with great control.
The fielding was average overall with quite a few misfields and Riaz and Benjy dropping catches they'd normally take comfortably. Their opener showed you don't need all the shots if you can be patient and score in your own areas - he scored 95 without one decent drive through the off-side and had our bowlers been able to mantain a decent line outside off this may have been a winning report. Thompson deserves credit for battling through fitness issues to pick up his first 5fer for the club as well as Waif who showed the value of keeping things simple. We did well to restrict them to 218/9 as they were 140/2 with 20 overs left.
Tea made Abbeydale look like a Michelin star restaurant. Very nice to know we not the only club to struggle to get this right.
Our reply started disastrously as Walton, the senior opener, was bombarded with bouncers from a young-left arm medium-pacer eventually edging one nervously to slip. Khuram smashed a long-hop to mid-wicket but also struggled against the short ball and tried to hook a quicker bouncer out of fear for his life, succeeding only in top-edging it into his visor to be comfortably caught by the keeper. AJ followed shortly after, clean bowled and an all-too familiar collapse was on the cards. Thompson joined Riaz and they settled things down for a while till Thompson got chirped out and Riaz was bowled off his elbow in the same over. Butler's miserable day continued as he chipped one to cover and Crofty, who was making every ball look like a yorker, was bowled to leave Colty to try and get us a point. He did his job admirably but had no support as Fielding missed his go-to-shot and was stumped and then Benjy and Waif received rather bizarre decisions as a result of half-serious appeals.
Another week where the bowling lacked consistency, the batting conviction and the fielding intensity. Two disappointing performances to start the season and the players are aware of the need to improve all areas of their game swiftly.