Had an interesting start to the season, ended up getting well beaten against a newly formed side which was made up of ex 1st XI players who had originally all retired between 5-12 years ago.
We bowled first and at one stage had them at 82-5 but we dropped a clanger in not getting our original ball back from someone's garden. I came on first change, had this ball swinging like a banana and conceded just 1 run off my first 5 overs plus took a wicket. Unfortunately, the bowler at the other end hadn't netted during the winter so was a tad rusty and one of his more wayward deliveries got carted for 6 and we thought we wouldn't see that again (didn't even bother looking !!).
The spare ball quickly appeared but unfortunately must have seen over 150 overs of hard work (the original was a new ball) and in contrast did absolutely nothing. One of the opposition batsmen, who was previously subdued, realised that life had got easier and started pulling the ball off any length he fancied. The other, who had been practically hanging on for dear life, also got a lift and between them put on 160+ for the 6th wicket. I ended up with figures of 1-30 off 10 overs which I suppose isn't too bad when the opposition post 271 off 45 overs.
After tea the opposition wasn't daft, also used a new ball and had it talking from the first delivery of our reply and only one of our players made it to double figures. Arguably their first change bowlers were better than their openers, I tried to be positive and punched a nice backfoot drive through extra cover for a boundary but that was the highlight of my innings. Had my Friday session at Stumps not been spent smacking half-volleys for 4 and 6 and rather learning to play Jimmy Anderson'esque away swingers I might have had more success. However, our opening batsman did manage to last the entire 45 overs and the match closed with us 72-8.
Anyhow lesson learned that is next Saturday have multiple decent match balls. Still, it was good to get back out playing cricket, the opposition was a great set of lads and the weather wasn't anywhere near as bad as forecast earlier in the week.
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Topic: YOUR 2017 SEASON (Read 220388 times)