Scorecard

Mill Hill School v Incogniti Cricket Club Incogniti CC on Wed 20 May 2009 at 11:30
Incogniti Cricket Club Lost by 3 wickets

Match report Given the similarities – in process and outcome - to last season’s fixture, I am tempted to refer you to 2008’s match report. Nevertheless, for those of you without access to that year’s booklet, I will provide a description of events.

Incogs, almost all present (though not necessarily correct) before 11:30am, undertook their usual pre-match warm-up of watching the opposition play touch-rugby while sipping coffee, admiring the ground and fitting the relevant knee supports, back braces etc. The toss was won by Mill Hill School, who elected to bowl on a greener-than-usual Mill Hill pitch.

Incogs’ innings last year stuttered to 15-5 within the first hour, so a healthy 22 for no loss off 10 overs represented something of a success. Naturally, the skipper had hoped that the opening pair’s stand would reach their combined age, but it wasn’t to be as Mike Leighton, having played admirably in seeing off the new ball, fell while attempting a leg-glance. Mill Hill Old Boy Furness perished shortly afterwards, unlucky to play-on having just begun to accelerate the score with some fine strokes through cover. This brought Ed Waite, fresh from Incog’s crushing defeat by the Royal Navy last week, to the crease. Your correspondent had at this point been ushered off to the nearest off-licence to purchase a large bottle of Tawny, though I am informed that a chest-high full toss was duly dispatched to the hands of deep square leg first ball. Special mention to K Chopra, Mill Hill’s spinner and regular 2nd Teamer, for his mixture of off-breaks, leg breaks, googlies and zooters, who picked up 2 wickets in two balls. At 50 for 3 after 19, a period of consolidation was required, and Test Match commentator Simon Mann, guesting for Incogs, provided just that. He and Johns took us safely to tea, Mann playing the sweep and square cut particularly well, while Johns hit a brace of fantastic cover drives.

Lunch was as always first-class, and as always the Incogs over-indulged. The school side looked on in amazement as twelve beers and a bottle of Port were consumed. Perhaps it was this that persuaded Rossington, who had kept magnificently for the first session, to ditch his gloves in order to play a bit of chin-music to the ‘well-oiled’ Incogs. Johns survived a testing spell, but Mann was not so fortunate, being bowled by one that kept a little low. Simon Parrish – a teacher at the school – came in for his usual barrage of sledging, and survived some hostile bowling admirably until the very last ball of Rossington’s spell. Off stump out of the ground and I’m sure a polite send off to Mr Parrish.

Chapman and Johns put on a further useful partnership, with Chapman rotating the strike and slapping the odd sweep, while Johns continued has perfectly paced innings, passing 50 with a sweetly timed pull. The demise of Chapman, swiftly followed by Gardner, saw Wakeford enter the fray. He and Johns significantly upped the scoring rate, with Wakeford employing the unorthodox and Johns continuing to find gaps with some great cricket shots, turning the strike over well. After being hit by Wakeford for three consecutive fours in his first over back, Mill Hill’s seamer Hughes followed that up with two of the finest deliveries of the day. The first, angled in to the pads of Johns, curved away at the last second to clip off-stump. A fine end to a fine and much-needed innings. The second, to Smith, a little fuller; same result. The hat-trick ball was kept out by Dugdale, but he unfortunately perished the next over, leaving Wakeford not out 42 from 25 balls. The target for Mill Hill School was 214 from about one and three-quarter hours, plus twenty overs.

As the Incogs well knew, there was one wicket above all others that stood between them and victory. Rossington’s previous scores in this fixture– all made in run-chases – were 122 and 138 not out. The battle cry before the innings started was to have them 60 for 6 by tea. They were 60 all right. 60 from 6. Wakeford opened up with a truly horrible spell of three overs, while Smith bowled better but received similar punishment. Ed Waite was brought into the attack early, but he too failed to stem the runs, despite bowling with good pace on what was an entirely unresponsive pitch. The last ball before tea, Wakeford went some way to redeeming his bowling display by sending in a searing throw from the boundary to run out Selley, who had batted well with an unorthodox technique.

After tea, slow bowling from Gardner and Dugdale did bring down the scoring rate a little, and both were unlucky to see the ball dropping just out of reach of fielders. Meanwhile, Rossington continued to pick the gaps and punish absolutely any error in line or length. The asking rate fell well below three an over by the time the last hour began, and Parrish replaced Gardner in a last-ditch attempt to skittle the schoolboys. Alas the boys marched on toward the target, and a last-last-ditch attempt was required. Enter Kelvyn Smith with ten runs required. Reverting to slow seam/spin for his final spell, ball one Rossington played on. Out for a magnificent innings of 114, the lowest score we’d seen him get in three years! Ball two blocked. Ball three Worsley propped forward and offered cover an easy catch. Balls four and five blocked. Ball six dipped, turned, hit the stumps! A triple wicket maiden from Smith – surely too little, too late. Mill Hill needed 10 runs and were five-down. Ed Waite was called upon, and started his over impressively but dropped a little short twice, and the Mill Hill captain obliged by pulling both deliveries for four. Smith’s second over: dot-dot-WICKET-dot-dot-dot. Suddenly the school were seven down and smith’s second spell read 2-2-0-4. Kids were padding-up all over the place! Gardner replaced Waite, but another fractionally short ball was cut for four to settle the game. A fine ending that ultimately flattered us a little, as the target was reached with more than 6 overs to spare.


Match Extras:
Incogniti CC innings: 33
Mill Hill School innings: 14

Incogniti Cricket Club Incogniti CC Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
214		        
Paul Furness b b. N Hughes 11 1
Mike Leighton ct c. R Davda b. K Chopra 22
Ian Johns b b. M Hughes 76
Ed Waite ct c. G Selley b. K Chopra 0 1
A.N. Other b #S Mann: c. G Selley b. K Chopra 20
Simon Parrish b b. A Rossington 0
A.N. Other b #B Chapman: b. A Rossington 5
Ian Gardner b b. K Chopra 4
Tom Wakeford Not Out  42
A.N. Other b #K Smith: b. M Hughes 0
Norman Dugdale ct c. R Davda b. P Relf 1

Mill Hill School Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
W Wright2.00500.002.50
M Hughes6.0132216.005.33
N Hughes12.0224124.002.00
R Davda8.0130130.003.75
K Chopra9.0142314.004.67
G Selley1.001000.0010.00
A Rossington6.0122211.003.67
P Relf0.20010.000.00

Mill Hill School Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
218 (0.0 overs)		     
G Selley run out T Wakeford / E Waite 35
A Rossington Capt/Wkt b b. K Smith 114
S Castle lbw b. K Smith 4
P Relf st st. Furness b. N Dugdale 27
F Daeche-Marshall Not Out  24
N Hughes b b. K Smith 0
C Worsley ct c. S Mann b. K Smith 0
K Chopra b b. K Smit 0
W Wright Not Out  0
R Davda  
M Hughes  

Incogniti Cricket Club Incogniti CC Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Tom Wakeford3.002800.009.33
A.N. Other12.0256511.204.67
Ed Waite7.004100.005.86
Ian Gardner6.003400.005.67
Norman Dugdale6.0028128.004.67
Simon Parrish3.002200.007.33

  • Umpire :
    Alan Flook
  • Scorer :