Who knows why they blocked but if you’re giving your time and paying to pay.. why should you gift it away if you don’t think you can win? Nothin worse than getting tonked about then surrendering quickly just so the winners can ‘get in the bar’Maybe they batted for bonus pts ? Maybe they didn’t have much left ? Maybe out of form ? Maybe they just aren’t hitters ? Maybe they just thought ‘ we aren’t going to win so let’s just bat the overs and see what happens’.. Lots of reasons . Win lose doe t change the fact people generally give up their time, pay money to play (generally wanting to bat) and so they might want to actually .. you know.. bat
My point being that they showed no intent in ever trying to chase it down. As i mentioned maybe that was because we knocked the guy over 1st ball of there innings and he was the best bat, maybe they are out of form although its week 1 of a season!! I can totally understand if your top order is blown away and then trying to bat for bonus points or even deny another team full points but to not go for it or show any intent to rotate the strike etc is just weird to me. They didn’t even get to the minimum score to get at least 1 bonus point. It wasn’t a particularly negative point i was raising, as you say its not my club and the blocker at the top was there captain who also opened the bowling and stood at 1st slip all day so maybe he like to get full value for his match fee.
The question of how to approach an innings when the game is clearly over as a contest (which is obviously how they felt) is always a tricky one in W/L cricket. A well-designed bonus points system that incentivises the batting team to try to score runs (1pt for 50 runs etc), and the bowling team to try to take wickets (1pt for 2 wickets etc) at least encourages positive play from both sides.Otherwise the choice is either "have a slog and get it over with", or "have a net", neither of which are particularly satisfactory.
Not having a crack at a 209 chase in 45 overs is a bit weird to be honest, even if you did lose your best bat early or whatever.First game of the season on Sunday for me, looking forward to getting going. Unfortunately it looks like it's going to be a bit of a 14-a-side farce which is a shame, but still a chance to get a run out before the season starts properly.
It could be that they were taking the approach of seeing off the opening bowlers and keeping wickets in hand before having a pop at the change bowlers, but just totally misjudged it, scored too slowly, got in a bit of a hole, and then the change bowlers weren't as rubbish as they had hoped. Its not unheard of.
A few of us were talking about. Sats game last night and this is what we decided must have been there plan. The team we played scored over 250 on 6 occasions last season with runs spread across the whole team. Our bowling is our strongest suit with a great mix of good pace upfront, medium swing in the middle along with 3 good tidy spinners so the opportunity to take a few overs from a part timer is slim. We held every chance that came our way and feel that maybe they did just get the chase totally wrong
When I started playing 20 years ago, the tactic of sending out 2 blockers to see off the new ball for 15 overs was pretty common, following by 15 overs of knocking it around and 15 overs of desperate slogging. Fielding teams got wise to it and put up a couple of patsy openers and then held back their better bowlers for the death.Nowadays the modern way is to have at least one batsman attacking throughout the innings.
First league game of the season today for us. So we were at home in a new league after 3rd straight promotion last year and played a local rival who have been mid placed in this league for the last few seasons. Lost the toss and we were asked to bat. Pitch was good for time of year, with a little pace and carry (our track is generally a batting pitch with good pace and decent, consistent bounce) we got off to a good start thanks to some loose early bowling being too full and we were 35-0 from 6 overs, they then dragged it back a bit and we went to drinks at 87-2. After drinks I managed to take 16 from the 1st over after drinks but introduction of spin slowed run rate down, I was finally out in the 37th over for 75, cutting to point. We ended 209-5 from our 45.After what can only be described as early season greed for tea, we just had so much food from sandwiches, to home baked sausage rolls, onion barges, homemade cake pretty much anything you could think of we took to the field. 1st ball if there innings our opener removed middle and off stump from the ground with an unplayable Yorker, not sure if this then set the tone but unfortunately three innings was really poor with the other opener and No3 dead batting for 22 overs to be 42-1 at drinks. We then prized out brigadier block caught behind by yours truly and with and end open our young leggie who had come on leaps and bounds in the last 3 seasons picked up 3 wickets in an over. Some more middle order blocking resulted in us finally getting the last 2 wickets in the 39th over. A good workout for our bowlers but I’ll never understand the mindset of some players and teams in this format of cricket where it’s just win or lose. Anyway a good start to my season as also conceded 0 byes and glove work felt really good. Finally used my GM kit after thinking I was going to go GN or Surridge this season, I went with the tried and trusted and my Noir Signature was superb so thanks Rob from Six sixes for another lovely GM