Season Two, Game Ten

Season Two, Game Ten: The One That (almost) Had Everything- 18th July, 2012

(by James Christensen)

There is no denying that WK Willows is one of the premier teams in the competition. They’re currently ranked 4th on the Wirral, compared to our 8th. Their win ratio touches 70%, while ours is about half of that.  Clearly, if we were to beat them, we’d have to be firing on all eight cylinders. But fire up we did, and what eventuated was about as thrilling an LMS encounter as you could possibly imagine.

Pre-match and the ‘toss’ is a bit of a non-event. Stevie ‘the wonder’ Willett, back from his moonlighting with the SCC, suggests that we bowl first to accommodate a couple of our players who have to leave early (Charles and Pete). The opposition skipper is only too pleased to oblige, stating they’d have batted first anyway. (Well, dah, who wouldn’t? As bitter experience had shown us time and time again…)

The WK Willows openers make their way to the middle and you can tell, just by looking at them, that they’re a team with fairly professional aspirations. For one, they’ve gone to the trouble of having their helmets covered in a cloth coating that matches their light blue uniforms exactly. (Wonder how many bonus points that’s worth?) And it’d look pretty impressive too, if it were not for the fact that said cloth coatings looked about as sharp as Steven Waugh’s champagne stained, moth eaten baggy green on the day of his retirement. Their skipper’s helmet was particularly unsightly, as the cloth on the peak looked like it had been prized back with a paint scrapper, had undergone some kind of chemical metamorphosis, and had since turned into this concertinaed mass that looked like it was growing organically out of his forehead. (Perhaps he was trying to evoke the look of a Klingon warrior from Star Trek?) In any case, I couldn’t resist a bit of sledging as I walked past, “Nice helmet. Is that out of the Steve Waugh catalogue?” I suddenly thought, bloody hell, he’s probably too young to even know who Steve Waugh is, but the reply came back, “Oooo… so the sledging’s started early then….” And I was actually grateful that the barb had been decoded and understood.(Thanks for not making me feel quite so old kid…)

What follows is a good tussle between bat and ball, with WK Willows making 148/ 3 at the close of their innings. Two of their lads got 50s, but there were also times when we pinned them back, with wickets going one apiece to Renners, Corky and Monty. So game on… 148 was a challenging total in light that was sure to deteriorate, but it wasn’t insurmountable. We were in with a big chance here….

So it’s the two boys who have to leave early who open the batting; Pete and Charles. Pete is in a particularly savage mood, right from the start, bludgeoning 17 from a mere eight deliveries, before he unleashes the big hoik over mid-wicket one too many times and is caught out. By contrast, Charles is uncharacteristically sluggish and seems to be having timing issues. How could we have foreseen what was about to happen though? Charles works through his initial poor form and is suddenly transformed into a kind of batting berserker. He ratchets up 52* off 32 balls, and, at one stage, hits three sixes in one over! And when I say sixes, I mean HUGE sixes. So huge, in fact, that he had the players on the neighbouring field running for cover and interrupted their game! While Charles was wreaking havoc, WK Willows kept themselves in the game by snaring the wickets of Renners (6 runs from 8 deliveries) and Graham (3 from 9). (And just so you’re not worrying too much, dear readers, the Rennison/ Wild bro-mance is still on- I’m reliably informed that all was forgiven after Renners sent Graham chocolates and flowers, and both attended counselling….)

Charles retires then and it’s Stephen Willett who joins the ever reliable Nick Corcoran at the crease. If we had access to one of those worm graphs that plots both teams’ innings, one worm would be laid over the other exactly- it was that close. We would have lost a few more wickets, which was a slight worry, but understandable, given the far less favourable light conditions….

Stevie ‘Wonder’ and Corky put a great partnership together and have pretty much turned the match in our favour. After ten overs we’re 80 odd and the little red worm on the graph is inching a little higher than the light blue one. And then it happens. A moment of high drama that none could possibly have predicted… Stephen Willett is KO’ed by a bouncer!

The ‘hit man’ in question was a young fellow by the name of Kiran Nalluri, a medium quick, who (we knew from past games) showed a particular predilection for bowling back of a length. Steve had negotiated a couple of these quite well, dispatching a few to the square leg fence, but whether Kiran changed pace a cog or banged it in a bit shorter, Steve was deceived, playing his pull shot too early, and copped one in the head…

The worrying part was that Steve immediately dropped to the ground and lay perfectly still, face down for what seemed like an eternity, although it was probably no more than two or three seconds. Finally there’s some movement- at least he’s not dead then! He staggers to his feet, rubbing and moving his jaw- obviously the point of impact. I rush out to the field and ask him if he’s okay. He says he is and wants to continue. I offer him a helmet, but he waves it away and bravely (or stupidly?) picks up his bat again.

Before Steve was hit, he’d probably amassed about twenty odd runs, had got his eye in and was just beginning to cut loose with some big shots. There’s no question that the blow to the head slowed him down a bit and the red worm now begins to dip under the light blue one. Steve is batting as well as ever after a couple of overs or so, but the poor light is beginning to have an effect, and captain courageous is bowled, just one shy of his half century.

And so the game is anyone’s again, with the odds just beginning to favour the men in light blue….  There are 10 runs required for victory off seven deliveries. Monty comes in at number seven and goes for glory…and…and… he’s gone, caught at mid off without troubling the scorer. Yours truly walks to the crease and joins Corky the Cat. A quick conference and we decide it’s best to let Corky try for the runs as he’s the man with his eye in. It’s the last ball of the over, I middle it to a man deep and, before I can stop myself, I’m calling for the single and Corky obliges. “Sorry mate… instincts just took over.” “No probs,” Corky smiles back and so it’s me to face the first ball of the last over; nine runs required from five deliveries. I work the ball away for another single which brings Corky back on strike; eight now from four deliveries. Corky lets fly, trying for the long off boundary, it’s intercepted but we manage to scramble back for a desperate second; six runs now from three deliveries. Corky tries for another boundary, but again all we can manage is another single, which brings me back on strike; five needed with two balls remaining. The ball is fullish but pushing slightly down leg and I whip it off my pads onto the on side (hoping to replicate the shot that brought me four runs last week), but it comes off the toe rather than the Quantum’s sweet spot and, yep, you guessed it, it’s another single. Corky’s back on strike for the final delivery of the innings and we’re still looking for that elusive boundary. The Cat gives it the full flourish of the bat but there’s only ever a single there and it’s the Willows home by three runs. We walk off the pitch a little dejected, but happy we’d given it our best shot. At the close, Corky had made a very respectable 26* (from 17), while I had 3* (from 3).

All in all a cracking game of cricket, which had just about everything; except, maybe, that final, elusive boundary that would have brought us victory.

But did we actually lose? Despite Charles’ glorious sixes, for my money, the shot of the match had to belong to Renners. One of the quicker Willows bowlers delivered a vicious, head high bean ball which Renners played beautifully. He leant back casually, getting himself out of harm’s way, while angling his bat to steer the ball for what should have been a well deserved boundary; had it not hit a randomly placed aluminium can on the outfield, several feet short of the flags!!! Now, here’s my theory. If we could link a DNA sample from the can to one of the Willows boys, then that would prove it was their fault the can was on the field in the first place, thereby justifying the awarding of the full four runs. Renners ran one, so that means we should have been awarded an additional three runs, making it a draw.

Anyone know a good forensic scientist and QC?