Scorecard

Bridford v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 07 Jun 2015 at 2.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 2 runs

Match report After a valiant recruitment drive by Gareth, eight Erratics were off to Bridford. It was warm, fluffy clouds filled the sky and Bridford kindly leant our skeleton team two fielders for the day, and would let our first batter out bat again.

The toss was won by a team and Chris Ferro, captaining for the day, led us out to field, positioning us within Bridford's remarkably circular pitch – quite a site from satellite imagery – which had perhaps been cut by hair clippers instead of a mower: a number 2 for the outfield and number 1 for the wicket. Bridford's openers used this to their advantage, sending a few too many of Ben Youngman and Krupakar Nallala's deliveries to the boundary. There were edges, some that kept low, but the runs kept totting up. Bridford reached 53 after 9 overs. It looked a bit grim. I asked their empire `is it usually high-scoring?', received the answer `no', and then it looked worse.

Phil Power and Fraser Chave took over bowling duties, the run-rate dropped and wickets came. Phil taking four and Fraser one. While Phil, helped by some irregular wicket bounce, offered a couple of `sorry bat' condolences for two of them, the other two were fine deliveries accompanied by spectacular Duncan Chave catches. Chris rotated the bowling: a few overs to Duncan, and the final one to himself: dot, dot, dot, bowled, bowled..., and one. The final ball up in the air, but falling just short of mid on. Target 188 to win.

A great selection at tea, matched the scenery for the day, sent a sugar-filled Erratics team out to bat.

Krupakar and Fraser were straight on the required run-rate. Fraser's wicket falling entitled him to return to life at number 9. Duncan came to the crease and middled plenty to the boundary. Eventually caught on 43, Erratics carried on and were on 108 after 20 overs, inside the run-rate target. Uncharacteristically, Andrew Forrester's wicket didn't last long, which brought Chris to the crease. The runs continued, including a trio of consecutive fours from Chris. But Krupakar was the backbone: his total increased at a steady rate, eventually caught on 69. With Phil at the crease, we were 147 for 4 off 27, but his bails flew, which made way for Dan Thistlethwaite. Then Chris edged one off Dunk's `clever' bowling. With Ben and Dan now at the crease, we needed 16 of 9 overs, but the run-rate dropped. Not phased, I uttered to Dan `plenty of time', but then took one, bang on course for the stumps, on the pads. Fortunately we could resurrect Fraser. The runs trickled in, and it was Lympstone all over again: three to win off the final ball. But unlike Hailwood's two on Thursday, a dot ball followed, and it wasn't to be.

The day was rounded off with a trip to the Bridford Inn: a quintessentially Devon pub with monster truck racing on a projector screen. Based on normal cricketing metrics, such as runs scored and wickets lost we might have debated `if only ... then'. But, like a BBC news reporter, I'll go for a cliché instead: cricket was the winner. A friendly match, against great opposition, on a fine day, topped off with a close result. What more could you want, apart from perhaps a game at Ipplepen on Wednesday?

Ben Youngman


Bridford Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4w 10b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
15
187 (40.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman8.004800.006.00
Jayakrupakar Nallala8.0038138.004.75
Phil Power8.003147.753.87
Fraser Chave8.0032132.004.00
Duncan Chave7.002400.003.43
Chris Ferro1.00321.503.00

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 13w 2b  
for 7 wickets
18
185		        
Jayakrupakar Nallala Bowled  69
Fraser Chave Caught  9
Duncan Chave Caught  43
Andrew Forrester Lbw  3
Chris Ferro Caught  31
Phil Power Bowled  0
Daniel Thistlethwaite Not Out  5
Ben Youngman Lbw  5
Fraser Chave Not Out  2
N.O. One  
N.O. One  

Bridford Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.