Cricket Web Black v Cricket Web Colts
Preseason Cricket - Fardin Qayyumi Stadium
Scorecard
Ball by Ball
The Cricket Web Black batting juggernaut finally clicked, and did so at the expense of a bruised Colts bowling attack in a thrilling, but comfortable win. The Blacks shot out of the gates against some woeful bowling by Greg Thomas. His first over featured 2 wides that went for 6 extra runs, and the over cost a total of 13 runs. In his next over, Thomas was picked on by James Stedman and to devastating effect. Swinging freely across the line, Stedman smacked consecutive deliveries into the stands at midwicket. In total Thomas' first 5 overs surrendered 55 runs, and CW Black raced away.
But the Blacks did not limit their range of attack. Manan Shah was brought into the attack and his first over went for 17. Stedman and Markus continued to feast on the bowling, with the hundred raised with the first ball of the 11th over. Two balls later, Wilson landed a yorker and broke through with the wicket of Markus.
Cloete, McMeekin, Armstrong and Smith - all scoring freely - contributed to maintaining the momentum, and only Jack McNamara's clever fingerspin looked to keep them in check. Seeing the effect of taking pace off the ball, Daniel Towns used Chris Butler, and to a lesser extent Tarick Weber, to good effect. After 40 overs, CW Black had raced to 267-4. They went on to score only 51 runs from the final 10 overs, largely due to a brilliant second spell by Manan Shah. His first proved costly at 5-0-33-1, but he returned mixing his pace brilliantly, and took 4 for 21 from his 4.2 overs at the death. The Blacks were bowled out for 318, though Gelman's quickfire 24 did threaten to cite a higher total.
Opposed to the spirit of their opponents earlier on, the Colts started their innings looking to use sharp running and strike rotation to the effect of building a platform for the chase. The plan backfired with the dismissal of Fitzsimmons early on, and a very pleasant innings of 25 by Malthus was ended a sharp outswinger. Nath Patrick claimed both wickets and limited the Colts to 35-2 in the 7th over. Butler started positively with an off-drive for a first-ball boundary, then survived a confident shout for lbw a ball later. He went on to make a delightful 15, and threw his wicket away looking to increase the pace of scoring.
Only Pooja Bharat seemed to have the measure of what was required under the conditions, and hers was a dashing innings of high quality. Bharat was last out in the 46th over, attempting to clear the midwicket fence and holing out to Armstrong in the deep. She had scored 112 from 134 balls, and CW Colts were all out for 243. George Roberts emerged from the innings with the most credit, as he clearly outshone Neil Pickup with the ball and did a good job of slowing the scoring in the middle overs. Gelman too continued his outstanding performance with another clutch bowling effort.
Cricket Web Black 318 all out (49.2 overs)
JE Stedman 57 [46], I Markus/AP Cloete 47 [48/62], GAJ Armstrong 38 [38]
Manan Shah 5-54 [9.2], JP McNamara 3-47 [10]
Cricket Web Colts 243 all out (45.5 overs)
P Bharat 112 [134], JB Malthus 25 [25], AS Das 20 [29]
ZE Gelman 2-28 [7.5], GM Roberts 2-36 [10]
Cricket Web Black won by 75 runs.
Man of the Match: ZE Gelman
Cricket Web Blue v Cricket Web Green
Preseason Cricket - Pickford Reserve
Scorecard
Ball by Ball
Cricket Web Green won through in a battle of the bowlers at the Pickford Reserve. Neither team shone with the bat, but both received very encouraging performances from their bowlers.
Liam Camps jr. inserted the Greens due a sluggish outfield, and Rob Malone darted to 47 from 40 balls. The Blue bowlers were loose early on, but Camps pulled things back with the wickets of Dravid and Malone in his opening spell. Anthony Lezama and Darren Dubb-Lynch progressed smoothly in the middle overs, though the Blue spinners exhibited good control of proceedings in the time. Lezama was out at 169-4, attempting to get after Rhys Williams and brilliantly stumped by Crampton.
Dubb-Lynch then accelerated to score 23 from his final 19 balls before he was caught at long-off looking to hit Matt Smith straight. From there the CW Green innings folded quickly. Smith and Camps shared the final 5 wickets, which fell in a heap for 15 runs. The collapse meant that CW Blue would chase a moderate 220 for victory.
The total of 219 soon looked enormous, however, when the Green bowlers were disciplined up front, beating the bat on a consistent basis. The effort was rewarded when Mitchell trapped Pete Young in front with a bit of seam movement, and then caught Mamesh off Cameron in the following over. Mitchell completed his devastating early impact with the wicket of Dinu DeSilva a ball later, caught and bowled playing the softest of shots. Cameron let Crampton off when he dropped a simple chance off his own bowling, and the CW Blue and CW XI wicketkeeper got as far as 14 before he lost his balance, pushing at Speirs. He was stumped neatly by Lezama.
Sean Fuller and Ben Wilshere milked the middle overs for a good partnership of 46, but 3 balls after Speirs dropped a return chance against Wilshere, he slipped an arm ball past Fuller and broke through for CW Green. Camps joined Wilshere for another good stand, this time they added 43, then misjudged a single and a direct hit by Malone put the Greens back in contention. Wilshere walked off shaking his head at his captain's mistake. CW Blue then needed 58 runs from 102 balls with 5 wickets in hand. Currie and Camps shaped the requirement to 32 from the last 54 balls. It was a clever bowling change of Malone that changed things decisively.
Malone got a fortuitous decision against Currie, and then had Camps caught at midwicket to knock back the last two remaining batsmen in the space of 4 balls. He finished with 3 for 12, and though Smith played a fiesty innings of 13 unbeaten, CW Blue fell 13 runs short of their target.
Cricket Web Green 219 all out (45.5 overs)
DY Dubb-Lynch 65 [83], RJ Malone 47 [40], A Lezama 42 [77]
LA Camps 5-42 [8.5], MJ Smith 3-56 [9]
Cricket Web Blue 207 all out (47.2 overs)
SE Fuller 42 [45], BL Wilshere 34 [42], LA Camps 30 [54]
RJ Malone 3-12 [5.2], MT Mitchell 3-39 [9]
Cricket Web Green won by 12 runs.
Man of the Match: RJ Malone
Cricket Web Red v Cricket Web Under-19
Preseason Cricket - CWBCC Stadium
Scorecard
Ball by Ball
Urgency from none other than CW Red captain Håkon Mørk secured a thrilling win at the CWBCC Stadium. The Cricket Web U-19 bowlers were put to the sword by Mørk in a stunning innings of 47 to guide the Reds home.
Mørk inserted the Under-19s earlier in the day, and was rewarded by the early wicket of Matt Luff. Hopgood played the defining innings of an eventual score of 230-9. He scored 66 from 83 balls at the top of the order. Scott and Ritchie also supplied very useful 40s, but the CW Red bowlers fought back from a shaky start to take control of the innings down the stretch. Dave Watt finished with 3 wickets, though it was Marc Robbins' medium pace that put the Reds in control.
Bennett and Sharma made a positive start to the chase, and though the latter was caught at point for 12, the Reds kept the early momentum in their court. Rob Dauth played superbly from the number 3 spot, only hitting one boundary in his 52. Kev Gough returned to dismiss his CW XI teammate, then the spinners Dwyer and Ritchie combined with the very impressive Dunn to strangle the scoring. Wickets came as consequence, and CW Red needed 64 runs from the final 54 balls of the innings.
At that stage Mørk had scored 4 runs from 11 balls, and Ritchie boasted bowling figures of 6-1-15-1. The seeming mismatch led to Gough giving Ritchie the 42nd over, and Mørk took advantage of the move to great effect. First he reverse swept for a boundary, then played successive slog sweeps, first for a six, then for an enormous six. In the following over he tonked Dwyer over long-on for his third six in 4 balls faced. In two overs the equation was down to 36 needed from 42. But Mørk was still not content.
Reddlapalli returned to the attack, and Mørk planted his front foot and swung exhileratingly across the line to bring up his fourth six. He lost his partner Nayak in the following over, out to an excellent return catch by Dwyer, but continued on his way with a deft late cut for a boundary to end the same over. Kennett launched Gough over mid-off to pick up a boundary, but was bowled a ball later. Dave Watt came to the crease and watched as his captain survived a confident shout for lbw by May-Quinlan.
Watt then looked to pull Gough and skied the ball over the wicketkeeper's head, picking up 3 runs in the process. The stroke of luck allowed Mørk to clip a single off the final ball of the over and celebrate an impressive win. Mørk finished unbeaten on 47 from 34 balls, his last 42 runs taking just 21 balls.
Cricket Web Under-19 230-9 (50 overs)
MR Hopgood 66 [83], NG Scott 45 [77], ZJ Ritchie 43 [49]
DJ Watt 3-48 [10], DM Kennett 2-32 [9], MJ Robbins 2-37 [10]
Cricket Web Red 231-8 (48 overs)
RJ Dauth 52 [68], H Mørk 47* [34], SA Bennett 30 [54]
KJ Gough 3-46 [9], RG Dunn 2-31 [10]
Cricket Web Red won by 2 wickets.
Man of the Match: H Mørk
Now post the real scorecard.
