Scorecard

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Philanthropists on Sun 28 Apr 2013 at 2.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 4 wickets

Match report Jeff Haynes reports

Six of our nine scheduled matches against the Philanthropists since 2007 had been cancelled or rained off, but on this day both sides mustered ten players. The heavy grey cloud saved its load for another time and place, though it allowed very little warmth to penetrate to the field of play. When the teams last met, in May 2011, we bowled out the Philanthropists for 88, with a spell of 8-4-9-5 from Peter Cox, but only Jonathan Kirby (captain then and now) and Mark Phillips survived from that match-winning team.

Our visitors from the south coast were turned out immaculately – not a ragged-trousered philanthropist among them! They won the toss and elected to field. Jan Heaton, sporting a streaming cold and apparently wearing six warming layers, took the crease with Fraser Chave. Chave fell at the end of the third over, presenting an easy catch to mid-off, with the score on 10. This brought in Prakash Kripakaran to provide an ideal partner for Heaton. The scoreboard started ticking over regularly as Heaton put away ones and twos, and Kripakaran took the direct route to the boundary, scoring three 4s and a 5 on the way to an elegant 23. In the tenth over, with the Erratics strongly placed at 54 for 1, Kripakaran fell to a catch by Martin which proved to be a turning point. Two balls later Jonathan Kirby holed out again to Martin, and four runs later Heaton, on 14, was also tempted into offering a catch.

When Martin joined the bowling attack he decided, rather unbefitting a philanthropist, to give very little away. In a 16 ball spell his off-breaks secured four more wickets and the Erratics slumped to 89 all out, with the only real resistance coming from Phil Power who was left on 10 not out when the ninth and last wicket fell in just the 21st over.

The collapse had come so quickly that the urn was still not up to temperature, so the Erratics had to take the field for six overs before earning their much needed cup of tea. Our target was to wheedle out the Philanthropists for just 88 – just like we did in May 2011 – but where would we find at least one performance to match that of Peter Cox?

The diminutive Haddon and his partner Edwardes played out the first six overs in no great hurry. Nigel Rutherford conceded only 1 run in his three overs of tight line and length, Harry Molins gave away 2 in two overs, but Phil Power was put away for 12 in his loosener, just before the break. His cause was not helped by some fleet footwork from Dominic Prosser: what at first appeared to be an effective half-stop rapidly gathered speed as his second contact sent the ball racing down the slope to the river boundary.

The (early) tea-time score of 15 without loss prompted talk of getting home in time to see some of the football. The Erratics now needed to take 9 wickets for 73 runs to win the match, which could not be described as a piece of cake. However, now is the time to describe two pieces of cake: Rutherford’s chocolate brownie which was a perfect combination of sticky on the gums and scrunchy between the teeth, and the very same Rutherford’s lemon drizzle, which was oozing with lemon and as spongy as, well, a very spongy sponge!

Immediately after tea Rutherford’s consistent bowling was rewarded as he bowled Edwardes for 15. From this point on Kirby adjusted the bowling and field placing with great skill, while himself ensuring that not a single bye nor leg bye got past him. Rutherford took a second wicket in the ninth over and two more in the eleventh and remained a constant threat. Molins gave him a short break at one end while at the other end there was good support from all the bowlers: Kripakaran, Jeff Haynes, Prosser and the returning Power all bowled with good control. [Prosser was called twice for no-balling by the square-leg umpire, but to be fair, they wouldn’t have been shoulder-height to normal-sized players!] Most of the time you couldn’t tell that we had only 10 fielders – in fact, only when all but one of the catching opportunities fell between players! Prosser more than made up for his earlier footwork with some excellent stops, and other sharp fielding came from Mark Phillips, Kripakaran, and the two teenagers.

Rutherford put in an exceptional performance. He struck again in the 27th over (63-5) and again in the 31st (73-6), bagging one LBW and five clean bowled victims. His final figures of 18-11-9-6 were amazing – accounting for all the wickets taken, and conceding only 9 runs. Though Rutherford was well supported by the other bowlers, who only gave away 81 runs in their 23.3 overs, Haddon and Co were happy to play the long game, waiting for and taking advantage of, those occasional loose balls which inevitably had to come.

It is to the credit of the Erratics that they delayed the Philanthropists for 41.3 overs, but Pete Haddon had the satisfaction of carrying his bat for an undefeated 32 as the visitors secured victory at six o’clock.

I would like to think that Nigel Rutherford will bowl this well again, but if he does he surely deserves to be on the winning side next time.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
89		        
Jan Heaton Caught  14
Fraser Chave Caught  3
Prakash Kripakaran Caught  23
Jonathan Kirby Bowled  0
Mark Phillips Bowled  2
Nigel Rutherford Stumped  8
Dominic Prosser Bowled  8
Phil Power Not Out  10
Jeff Haynes Bowled  0
Harry Molins Caught  0
N.O. One  

Philanthropists Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Philanthropists Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
93 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nigel Rutherford18.011961.500.50
Harry Molins5.011600.003.20
Phil Power7.002700.003.86
Prakash Kripakaran3.01800.002.67
Jeff Haynes2.00700.003.50
Dominic Prosser6.302800.004.31