Energy Exiles Cricket Club

Match Summary: vs. Agricola, Sunday, 17 May 2009

Ground: King's House Sports Ground
Captain: Andrew Wingfield
Match type: 40 overs
Toss: Agricola elected to bowl
Weather: Drizzle, wet pitch
Opposition: Agricola scored: 175 for 5 (38.2 overs)
Exiles Score: 173 for 5 (40 overs)
Result: Lost by 5 wickets
Man of the match: Marcin Zieleniewski 32 & 2 for 30

Exiles are getting into a habit of playing quite well and losing of late, as a late demonstration of powerful hitting by opposition skipper and sometime Exile Dan Gauntlett saw Agricola squeeze home with 10 balls to spare.

With the late arrival of JPJ and Andy Clay in addition to Q's absence, it was Keith Roberts who was the surprise choice for the second openers role, alongside the experienced Martin Thomas.

And both batters found going predictably difficult on a damp surface against the pretty accurate Agricola seam attack of Gauntlett and Dugdale. Roberts followed Thomas’s lead and did very well to keep out the straight ones and also showed good judgment in deciding when to leave the ball.

After just 13 runs from the first 10 overs (nearly half of which were extras), Thomas started to open up in familiar style, dictating the running and trying to encourage his junior partner that batting wasn't quite as difficult as first thought. Thomas managed a couple of classy flicks off his substantial pads and there was even a flicker of a sighting of his famed cover drive at one point. Roberts still looked a little hesitant, but was making a fine fist of opening the batting and was even starting to look quite settled as Thomas showed him the way.

The opening partnership had reached 68 when Thomas was out in unfortunate circumstances as a direct hit from mid-on left him well short. But it had been a typically solid knock - 32 from 72 balls - and the Exiles do look a much better side with Martin at the top of the order.

Roberts' heroic defence was finally broken a few overs later - in similarly unfortunate circumstances - as an uppish square cut found the unlikely safe hands of John Morgan at point to take the catch. An unfortunate ending for Keith certainly, but he will have learnt a lot from batting alongside Thomas.

Sharaz Hussain made his debut for the Exiles batting at number 3 and - joined by JPJ coming in at 4 - the Exiles innings gathered momentum - as both players showed excellent attacking intent - pulling and cover-driving proficiently; Hussain was eventually tied down by the experience of the wily Morgan - who eventually got his man - beaten for lack of pace - in a style oft-frequented in previous Exiles v Agricola encounters. But it was a fine effort from Sharaz and one that hopefully bodes well for the club in upcoming fixtures, as he hit 29 off 36 deliveries.

When JPJ also fell shortly afterwards - well held at deepish mid-on - with a top-scoring 36 (off 38), it was left to Clay - with a couple of quick swishes and Simon Gundry - with an almighty straight six into the wind off a Gauntlett slower ball - to see the Exiles up to their usual score of 173 after 40 overs.

Before the start of play, 170 seemed a good score, but at tea it seemed slightly short - as conditions for batting weren’t quite as difficult as feared.

Andy Wingfield and Naren Patel opened up - with Patel steaming into the wind, as Wingfield showed typical captain’s courage by bowling himself from the more difficult down-wind end.

Despite the ball doing a bit, the Agricola openers - Almond and Everett - played pretty well and though scoring was kept to a premium, each played a pretty decent cover drive for 4 off Wingfield. Patel made good use of favourable conditions with 3 straight maidens as the Exiles looked to build up pressure.

After 10 overs, Gundry replaced Wingfield and quickly struck - bowling the dangerous Almond with a terrific in-cutter with his second ball. And, not-to-be-outdone, Patel then bowled the equally dangerous Lamprecht to put the Exiles firmly on top.

Everett and Segal rebuilt steadily for Agricola however and further wickets eluded the Exiles - despite good bowling from Gundry, Andy Pope with his off-spin, and, at least initially, from Phil Chamberlain.

The rain had by now started to grow heavier and more persistent and the ball and pitch became very slippery, which turned out to favour the batsmen, as the bowlers - understandably - struggled to maintain control. Chamberlain suffered most - his style is certainly not suited to bowling with a bar of soap - and he was replaced by Martin Thomas - now in all-rounder mode. Thomas - who's name is really Marcin Zieleniewski - but that’s a bit of an effort to type so shall remain Thomas for the rest of this report - promptly slipped with his first delivery and landed pretty heavily on his knee. No serious damage was seemingly done however - and, the delivery in fact had been perfectly straight - perhaps a lesson learned there?

And it was Thomas who got the break-through - as a straight one (that he didn't fall over whilst bowling) slipped through Everett’s defences for a well-made 44. Segal also fell in Thomas’s next over - with a faint nick to keeper Wil Scott.

And Exiles got a further wicket shortly after as Agricola keeper Peters - after smashing his first 2 balls through mid-wicket for 4, was beaten by a Gundry slower ball.

Usually taking wickets is a positive, but this brought Gauntlett and Steve Thody - reveling in his new number 7 role (he had injured his hand fielding) - to the crease and quickly they attacked and turned the game.

Over 80 was still needed off the last 10, but Gauntlett - through cover, mid-off and mid-wicket mainly, and Thody - effortlessly through cover and third man mainly - raced along. With over 30 runs still needed however, there was one more critical moment to happen as Gundry forced an outside edge from Gauntlet's blade, but Scott was unable to react in time and the ball smacked his chin rather than his gloves and the chance was gone. Scott was a little bruised - mentally and physically - but was okay to proceed.

With the gauntlet now thrown down, Thody and, er, Gauntlett finished proceedings with 10 balls remaining as Chamberlains second spell with the soap was harshly treated.

Exiles had done pretty well, but Agricola - and in particular Dan Gauntlett - were better. A good game of cricket that could've gone either way, but with plenty of positives for the Exiles.

Report By: Andy Wingfield

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