Devon Cricket Board - DCBYA U14s 2013 Somerset Match Report

“A Bad Day At The Office” – they happen and may well happen again- we have all experienced them but we learn from them and move on. Remember life is not fair!
It was an unusual day, I had to text the grounds man to find out if we were playing and then let him have the fielding restrictions - and we were away! On arrival no one greeted us, the weather was overcast, threatening rain and blowing a hooly. With the two Joe’s off to Barcelona with DHSB and Bodders getting injured in the week we only had 11 players. It was my fault if we struggled for pace bowling.
The warm up went well and there was plenty of banter. The pitch was covered and looked used but hard. The bounce might be irregular and with rain in the air perhaps we should put them in? Billy won the toss and inserted Somerset and Alex and Noah who was up for it, opened the bowling. Alex opened with a maiden and Noah’s first over showed promise but there was a four ball. It was difficult bowling consistently with the gale and unfortunately there were too many four balls before Noah who was bowling well, trapped Whitefield LBW. Pethy came on to replace Alex in the 8^th over and 4^th ball had Casterton “stone dead”, according to Nick, LBW, 38-2 off 9; given what I have said above, we would have settled for that before the start! Noah then completed his fifth over and finishes with figures 5.1.13.1 good effort. We continued to contain Somerset with good bowling by Billy and Pethy backed up by excellent fielding such as Fins dive but then the odd fielding lapse crept in, including dropping Grundry when on 9 just before drinks at 15 overs! Nick reminded the players that if we bowl 3 dot balls these players, Scriver and Grundry who were batting well, would look to score off the last 3 balls, so be alert - and they did and played some delicate improvised and premeditated shots to rotate the strike, but some were risky.

At this point we started not to help ourselves a little, the odd miss field, perhaps fielders not quite in the right position and anticipating the ball enough, watch the bat face lads and the batsman’s hands, and so the Somerset partnership the Somerset player’s confidence grew. However we did not let things race away and Neal’s introduction in the 21^st and Morgan’s introduction, more off spin, pace off the ball in the 24^th over, helped as they found it difficult to score. There were however one or two more miss fields and some great stops Morgan’s for instance but also a dropped catch before eventually in the 27^th over Neal enduced Scrivens to miss hit the ball, not a great ball, which spooned over Wardy who managed to take a good catch. 101-3 and at that moment neither side were really dominating. What was good too was with the two spinners on and Morgan in particular we were getting through our overs, this in itself applying pressure. 15 overs to go 117-3. Somerset continued to tick the score along when in the 32 over Morgan bowled a full toss which Eckland tamely hit straight to Alex at square leg. 124 - 4. Baker came to the crease another lefty. At this point Nick and I were wondering who was going to bowl at the death as Somerset had wickets in hand and Grundry who was content taking singles and blocking would surely have a go if he was still in. Unfortunately we then missed another chance off Morg and it was 144 - 4 with 9 left, 200-220 was on? The next 9 overs were not great as Grundry once he had scored his fifty did take off, hitting some powerful and delicate shots as he raced to his second fifty and 100 off the last ball of the innings. Yes we did drop him again on his way and miss Baker too but Somerset’s last wicket partnership was hard to take, very hard to take; it set a tone and took the initiative away from us. That is why we had a chat before tea to try and make you realise that 228 was about par and if we batted well, which there was no reason we could not especially as we batted so deep, very deep, we could chase down. 5 an over was about singles, turning ones into twos, putting the bad ball away and trying to keep wickets in hand too.

After a long tea break Jim and Harvey opened and the Somerset bowling was nothing to get too alarmed about. We did not score many singles though as they bowled just short of a length and it was not until the 5^th over that Harvey hit a back foot drive for 4 through the covers. Indeed nearly all our initial fours, and there were not many nor were there wides, were back foot cover drives by Harvey and Billy, which does tell a story. In the 8^th over Jim playes over a straightish one and is bowled, 17-1. Enter Billy and he is off the mark first ball. After 10 overs we are 27-1 perhaps slightly behind where we would like to be but okay. Scrivens comes on and bowls his right arm medium pace straight and just short of a length and Clark comes on the pavilion end and bowls slow left arm. First ball he wraps Harv on the pads and he is out LBW! 31-2 off 12. Wardy promoted comes in. At this point I realised that Somerset did not have two close catchers so Harv should not have been out as it was a no ball! I also realised I still had the Team sheet as the umpires had not asked for it! Also at this point, rather late in the day, Pethy had his moment and it was to do with the compass and which way was North. He finished by saying he didn’t do Geography and be quite or words to that effect. At drinks we were 43 -2 and unless we started to manipulate the field score some runs pressure was going to mount and build on the middle order and we would then possibly lose quick wickets whatever the batting we had. The instructions were to try and score a bit faster if we could, hit gaps, take singles etc. Dot balls were beginning to frustrate both batters though and when Wardy missed three balls down the leg side, then drove to mid off he decided next ball to charge Clarke and got stumped. 43-3 off 16. Enter Noah and so the score would tick along faster and it did, nice back foot drive through the covers and the odd lofted shot whilst Billy chipped in to. Somerset made life more difficult for us by posting sweepers earlier and perhaps having fielders in slightly better positions, more backward. Grundry then brought himself on, leggie and Billy hit him for four through mid on but two balls later Billy hit a delivery straight back at him. 57-4 off 21. Let’s be honest it was a good game to win from here, 7 an over now needed - however with Noah in and the batting to come, plenty of it, it was still possible. Two overs later Fin is caught 61-5 off 23. Ben goes in, play your game you have lots of overs and with Noah they start to consolidate and take the score onto 73 when Noah hits a full toss straight down Bakers throat. 73 -6. Neal bats well then hits a ball straight to Scrivens and then Ben finds Clarke. 84-8 off 32. Change of bowling and before we know it both Alex and Morgan are both LBW, Morgan however clearly middled his! Petherbridge not out, a little cameo I am told 1, with a strike rate of 50! Devon 85 all out in 32 overs as they say a bit of a disaster!
Yes it has been one of those days at the office. We have all experienced them but as a 14 year old it very hard to take. As Nick and I told you, you are actually better than that, much better and we now need to pick you up and make you realise it too. There are some lessons we need to learn which we have talked about. Nick and I have also got some things wrong too and we have talked and discussed things to see how we can help.
Here are some goals I want you to read and see if you/ the team can adopt them.

Batting

· Not to loose a wicket with under 10 in the partnership

· To have two players scoring 50+ per innings

· Have at least one 80+ and one 50+ partnership per innings

· Pick up EVERY scabby run (every run possible)

· Not to loose two quick wickets

Bowling

· To take 2 wickets in the first 10 overs

· Not to go for more than 4 over all

· To bowl 17.5 overs an hour

· As a team bowl 8 maidens

· As a team bowl not more than 8 wides and no balls

Fielding

· Everyone give 110%

· Back everything up where ever you are fielding

· Dive and save every single in the ring

· Chase every ball in pairs to the boundary and never give it up

· Run between the overs

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