Scorecard

Marldon v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 25 Jun 2017 at 1.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 69 runs

Match report A.N. Other: Neil Bennett-Hughes
A.N. Other1: Henry Bennett-Hughes

There have been few instances in the past where the Erratics team was driven to victories steered by some great individual knocks, almost single handedly. Few examples I can recollect are Chris Ferro’s feat against Clyst St. George (3rd July 2016), Matt Cook’s marvel against Newton Poppleford (18th August 2013) and Duncan Chave’s dominance at Chumleigh (May 1st 2016). This Marldon game closely reminded me of such an instance led by the skipper Martin Wright.

A high spirited Erratics gathered once again at Marldon on another sunny day for one last time this year (spoiler alert: a possibility of another game at Marldon is not ruled out atm). The game also had the privilege of having the Bennett-Hughes family play together (first Erratics games for Tom’s brother Henry Bennett-Hughes and father Neil Bennett-Hughes) which was a treat to watch.

Not sure who won the toss but it was time for Erratics to bat first and skipper Martin had his plans ready to put into force. Krupakar and Mark Philips opened the innings and given the small ground, a high scoring game was foreseen; but Marldon had some other plans! The young arsenal of Marldon bowlers were a treat to watch and play against (one of the best bowling attacks I’ve seen) bowling tight line and lengths assisted by the Marldon wicket.

Just to put things into perspective, Erratics were less than 30 runs in their first 15 overs having lost 3 wickets; one of Marldon’s opening bowlers figures read 5 maidens in his first spell of 6 overs. It was to get worse with another young leg spinner yet to open his bowling attack; another treat to watch!

Krupakar, Tom and Gary looked to get on with it but could not stay on long while Mark Philips hung around to see through the opening spell of bowlers. With a slow run rate and having lost few wickets, Martin Wright made his way in halfway through the game; not an ideal situation for a skipper to be in. I would have imagined the obvious thoughts in the mind were whether to play cautiously or to pile up some runs to give Marldon a game.

Martin brilliantly adapted to the situation by settling in cautiously to stabilise the innings and shifting the gears one by one at every possible instance as the game progressed. It was a pleasure to watch how meticulously Martin managed the whole of the remaining innings by saving the batting to putting up a minimum score to making it a competitive and defendable score towards the end. Some of the typical Martin Wright’s drives and square cuts were a treat to watch; my favourite being a straight play-through-the-line-six over the bowler where Chris Ferro has landed the famous ‘last-ball-six’. Our remaining batsman George, Gary, Siva, Gareth and the Bennet-Hughes all played around Martin to see him guide Erratics from nowhere to a respectable 161 runs in 40 0vers.

After a relishing tea, we were back pondering how to contain Marldon on a small ground. Erratic’s ‘most economical’ bowler Gareth opened the proceedings with yet another tight bowling spell. There was a good support at the other end by Henry who looked impressive with his tight line and length. The tight opening spell paved way for quick break-throughs for the bowlers to follow; Krupakar and Neil took 3 wickets each without giving out too many runs.

A mention on some decent tight fielding from Tom, Neil, Henry, George, Mark Philips, Martin and cautious wicket keeping from Siva (after a long break of 4 years) all contributing to putting breaks on Marldon and getting them all out for 91 (which turns out to be exactly the runs scored by Martin!).

An enjoyable day of cricket against a friendly opponent ended up in the pub joined by the Bennett- Hughes family. Hope they will be back to play again.

(Krupakar reports)

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 10w 7b  
for 8 wickets
19
161		        
Jayakrupakar Nallala Bowled  1
Mark Phillips Caught  13 2
Tom Bennett-Hughes Bowled  8 2
Martin Wright Not Out  91 16 1
Gary Abrahams Bowled  2
George Cockburn Bowled  8 1
A.N. Other Caught  8 1
A.N. Other1 Bowled  1
Sivaraman Subramanian Caught  7 1
Gareth Oughton Not Out  3
A.N. Other3  

Marldon Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Marldon Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
91 (28.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Gareth Oughton5.02700.001.40
A.N. Other15.0117117.003.40
George Cockburn1.001600.0016.00
Jayakrupakar Nallala8.021234.001.50
A.N. Other8.002839.333.50
Tom Bennett-Hughes1.01010.000.00