HILARY KEEPS DODGERS BANDWAGON ROLLING
Another week, another victory, compare us to the Australian test team rather than the Bangladeshis.
The Dodgers team amassed at Chiswick hungry for more success and early on it all went well. On a dampish and slightly overcast evening (I've always fancied myself as a bit of a weatherman) we were keen to field first to make full use of the conditions. Captain Carr cunningly lost the toss but employed his Jedi mind games to ensure that they decided to have a bat.
In the field the game started reasonably well. Paterson and Benn kept things relatively tight in the opening eight overs conceding just twenty-nine runs. This could have probably been four fewer if I had decided against bowling my devious slower ball which turned into a full toss duly despatched for a comfortable four. Somewhat irritated I sent one down a bit quicker and thus the opening partnership was broken.
Pope came on for Paterson with Hilary replacing Benn. Unfortunately for Pope Hyde now had his eye in and was quite frankly seeing the ball like a beach ball. However, after seeing his first two balls dissect strategically placed fielders (on the boundary) and go for four Pope pulled it back conceding just five off his remaining four balls. At the other end Hilary opened with a tight if unspectacular over conceding nine runs, little clue of what was to follow. After Pope's second over went for eleven Hilary kept it tight with just one run of his next including some strong and quite beautiful twirly leg-before appeals. McBarron replaced Pope but found it tough early on, that said his first over only actually produced two scoring shots, unfortunately both of these were fours.
Arguably the next over turned the Dodgers performance in the field round. Hilary had been working up to quite a pace and now bowled an inswinging yorker which Charlston played all round, and was possibly lucky not to see his toe broken Younis style. Replacing him Harland was then trapped plum LBW with Hilary's triple salko receiving a 9.8 from the Russian judge. Unfortunately the deserved hat-trick escaped Hilary by the merest of thick inside edges (middle-of-the bat I'm afraid) but Hilary had turned the game on it's head. After McBarron was unfortunate to see something like sixteen catches go down in his next over Hilary returned to claim another wicket (one which I quite blatantly cannot remember) to finish with McGrath like figures of 3 for 15.
Brown and McBarron finished the Dodgers overs with some tightish bowling. Brown was perhaps unfortunate to see her two overs despatched for thirty two during a quite fascinating psychological battle with Holloway where, despite his hitting her for the odd four and one rather nice six, she continued to give the ball plenty of flight challenging the batsmen to hit her out of the ground. BSI finished on a healthy one hundred and twenty five for four but Dodgers remained confident(ish).
At this point I've realised that this report is getting far too long and if you've read it this far then you probably deserve my congratulations. Anyway onto the batting which opened up with Priest and Bultitude with the latter clearly struggling from a hamstring strain. Bultitude had obviously made up his mind to score only in boundaries (is this new?) and looked set to achieve that with an absolute stormer (Benaud 1997) of a shot. Unfortunately though Bultitude picked out a rather jammy and tall sod who stuck out his right hand and must have been as surprised as anyone to see the ball stick. Replacing him Cooper too hit a fine shot but with real precision picked out Harland who held onto a difficult chance. At the other end Priest must have been concerned but if he was he did not show it. Rather he displayed his full array of shots, looking especially strong off his back foot. If there can be any criticism of Priest's innings it was as he put it later that he "picked the fielder every f**k*ng time". Priest though was running out of partners with Carr clean bowled by the excellent Steadman.
It was Matthews timely entrance that was to change our batting performance and put the Dodgers back in contention. Matthews was clearly strong off his legs consistently playing a fine leg-slide glancy type paddly thing (Benaud Senior 1886). The Priest/ Matthews partnership was ended when Priest was forced to retire having made a timely 31 but his replacement came in the guise of the more than adequate McBarron. Just as it looked like Matthews was set for a big score he was bowled and replaced by Paterson who spent a fair amount of time walking to the wicket and an equal amount of time walking away from it again bowled by a rather unfortunate straight ball which is just not cricket as far as I am concerned.
If Hilary was concerned on his way to the wicket he simply did not show it. Having made an excellent 31 McBarron too was forced to retire having hit the ball to all parts of the park. Using writers licence I feel I must break off here and say that watching McBarron in full flow is simply devastating, his shot selection matching that of all the greats (does this make up for my appearing to be "in a mood with you" during the match Phil?)
Anyway back to the game. Hilary was knocking the ball all over the place and knocking it a long way too. He clearly wanted to get the game over and done with despite us needing 21 runs from the last three overs. Hilary was joined at the wicket by Benn who, in a break from his normal style of play, was looking to nurdle (new record for consecutive use of this word in relation to Neil's batting achieved) the ball for singles and farm the strike to the swashbuckling Hilary. Benn must have surely been delighted by the fielding side's compliance with his plan as they chose to protect the boundary rather than field close in. As Benn came to the wicket he tells me that Dodgers still needed 40 odd off the last 4 (Paraphrased from J.C's e-mail of 10:18am this morning). However, with Benn's nurdling and Hilary's cavalier style this soon became twenty-one off three. In one final giant push that saw Hilary looking to ensure victory ASAP this became six of two and with relative ease Dodgers coasted home to another victory.
Thanks go to everyone who turned up and my mate Dave who supplied me with the “legal” drugs that made this report possible.
Man-of-the-match – Well no one told me but if it wasn't John “all-rounder” Hilary then I will pick up my ball and go home and sulk.
Boring stats bit yaawwwnnnn!
Another week, another victory, compare us to the Australian test team rather than the Bangladeshis.
The Dodgers team amassed at Chiswick hungry for more success and early on it all went well. On a dampish and slightly overcast evening (I've always fancied myself as a bit of a weatherman) we were keen to field first to make full use of the conditions. Captain Carr cunningly lost the toss but employed his Jedi mind games to ensure that they decided to have a bat.
In the field the game started reasonably well. Paterson and Benn kept things relatively tight in the opening eight overs conceding just twenty-nine runs. This could have probably been four fewer if I had decided against bowling my devious slower ball which turned into a full toss duly despatched for a comfortable four. Somewhat irritated I sent one down a bit quicker and thus the opening partnership was broken.
Pope came on for Paterson with Hilary replacing Benn. Unfortunately for Pope Hyde now had his eye in and was quite frankly seeing the ball like a beach ball. However, after seeing his first two balls dissect strategically placed fielders (on the boundary) and go for four Pope pulled it back conceding just five off his remaining four balls. At the other end Hilary opened with a tight if unspectacular over conceding nine runs, little clue of what was to follow. After Pope's second over went for eleven Hilary kept it tight with just one run of his next including some strong and quite beautiful twirly leg-before appeals. McBarron replaced Pope but found it tough early on, that said his first over only actually produced two scoring shots, unfortunately both of these were fours.
Arguably the next over turned the Dodgers performance in the field round. Hilary had been working up to quite a pace and now bowled an inswinging yorker which Charlston played all round, and was possibly lucky not to see his toe broken Younis style. Replacing him Harland was then trapped plum LBW with Hilary's triple salko receiving a 9.8 from the Russian judge. Unfortunately the deserved hat-trick escaped Hilary by the merest of thick inside edges (middle-of-the bat I'm afraid) but Hilary had turned the game on it's head. After McBarron was unfortunate to see something like sixteen catches go down in his next over Hilary returned to claim another wicket (one which I quite blatantly cannot remember) to finish with McGrath like figures of 3 for 15.
Brown and McBarron finished the Dodgers overs with some tightish bowling. Brown was perhaps unfortunate to see her two overs despatched for thirty two during a quite fascinating psychological battle with Holloway where, despite his hitting her for the odd four and one rather nice six, she continued to give the ball plenty of flight challenging the batsmen to hit her out of the ground. BSI finished on a healthy one hundred and twenty five for four but Dodgers remained confident(ish).
At this point I've realised that this report is getting far too long and if you've read it this far then you probably deserve my congratulations. Anyway onto the batting which opened up with Priest and Bultitude with the latter clearly struggling from a hamstring strain. Bultitude had obviously made up his mind to score only in boundaries (is this new?) and looked set to achieve that with an absolute stormer (Benaud 1997) of a shot. Unfortunately though Bultitude picked out a rather jammy and tall sod who stuck out his right hand and must have been as surprised as anyone to see the ball stick. Replacing him Cooper too hit a fine shot but with real precision picked out Harland who held onto a difficult chance. At the other end Priest must have been concerned but if he was he did not show it. Rather he displayed his full array of shots, looking especially strong off his back foot. If there can be any criticism of Priest's innings it was as he put it later that he "picked the fielder every f**k*ng time". Priest though was running out of partners with Carr clean bowled by the excellent Steadman.
It was Matthews timely entrance that was to change our batting performance and put the Dodgers back in contention. Matthews was clearly strong off his legs consistently playing a fine leg-slide glancy type paddly thing (Benaud Senior 1886). The Priest/ Matthews partnership was ended when Priest was forced to retire having made a timely 31 but his replacement came in the guise of the more than adequate McBarron. Just as it looked like Matthews was set for a big score he was bowled and replaced by Paterson who spent a fair amount of time walking to the wicket and an equal amount of time walking away from it again bowled by a rather unfortunate straight ball which is just not cricket as far as I am concerned.
If Hilary was concerned on his way to the wicket he simply did not show it. Having made an excellent 31 McBarron too was forced to retire having hit the ball to all parts of the park. Using writers licence I feel I must break off here and say that watching McBarron in full flow is simply devastating, his shot selection matching that of all the greats (does this make up for my appearing to be "in a mood with you" during the match Phil?)
Anyway back to the game. Hilary was knocking the ball all over the place and knocking it a long way too. He clearly wanted to get the game over and done with despite us needing 21 runs from the last three overs. Hilary was joined at the wicket by Benn who, in a break from his normal style of play, was looking to nurdle (new record for consecutive use of this word in relation to Neil's batting achieved) the ball for singles and farm the strike to the swashbuckling Hilary. Benn must have surely been delighted by the fielding side's compliance with his plan as they chose to protect the boundary rather than field close in. As Benn came to the wicket he tells me that Dodgers still needed 40 odd off the last 4 (Paraphrased from J.C's e-mail of 10:18am this morning). However, with Benn's nurdling and Hilary's cavalier style this soon became twenty-one off three. In one final giant push that saw Hilary looking to ensure victory ASAP this became six of two and with relative ease Dodgers coasted home to another victory.
Thanks go to everyone who turned up and my mate Dave who supplied me with the “legal” drugs that made this report possible.
Man-of-the-match – Well no one told me but if it wasn't John “all-rounder” Hilary then I will pick up my ball and go home and sulk.
Boring stats bit yaawwwnnnn!
Innings of BSI
D Steadman b Hilary 13
C.Powell b Paterson 16
D.Hyde Retired 31
J.Terry Retired 25
K.Harland LBW b Hilary 0
D.Charlston b Hilary 3
C.Holloway Not Out 25
D.Michael Not Out 4
Bowling
O M R Wkts
R.Paterson 4 1 11 1
N.Benn 4 0 18 0
D.Pope 2 0 24 0
J.Hilary 4 0 15 3
P.McBarron 4 0 21 0
S.Brown 2 0 32 0
Innings of Dodgers
Priest Retired 31
Bultitude c.Hyde b.Ward 2
Cooper c.Harland b.Ward 0
Carr b.Steadman 0
Matthews b.Harland 15
McBarron Retired 31
Paterson b.Hyde 1
Hilary Not Out 24
Benn Not Out 3
Pope DNB
Brown DNB
Bowling
O M R Wkts
Steadman 3 0 7 1
Ward 3 0 15 2
Terry 3 0 20 0
Harland 4 0 18 1
Hyde 4 0 26 1
Charlston 2 0 23 0
Holloway .5 0 2 0
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