Bedouins v Open GI at Enville – Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Bedouins won by 14 runs
The Bedouins were made to dig deep last night to secure a victory against a highly determined but extremely sporting OpenGI team at Enville. For the Beds, Currie was still side-lined and Hill A. was struggling with injury although he played. Pearson had gone off-shore somewhere and so Richard Ferguson was drafted in to make his debut. Gregory and Goodman returned to the fold.
Unusually, the skipper won the toss and elected to bat but seven overs into the innings was beginning to doubt whether he had made the right decision with the Bedouins on the ropes at 26 for 4. The usually reliable opening pair of Branch and Hill A. both found the wicket to be unpredictable and added to that there was the pace of the two OpenGI bowlers to contend with. Mostly the ball kept low but occasionally it spat up off a length and both had to take evasive action. Branch played a couple of nice square cuts for 4 but was eventually caught at mid on. Hancock entered the fray sporting new pads but didn’t really have long to test them out as he was bowled for one. Beds new found batting sensation, Boom Boom Bywater, didn’t quite live up to his title as he was bowled for 0 – average ruined.
At this point Hill J and the skipper came together with the later facing the prospect of ‘a pair’ having managed a golden duck in a game last week. But these two forged some sort of a partnership and slowly managed get the scoreboard moving with a partnership of 34. Hill J. with his ‘no frills’ batting style proved to be what was needed and he hit the only six of the night in his knock of 18. It won’t be long before we see a big score from him.
The skipper retired on 30 having tormented the bowlers with some streaky edges and Gregory, Goodman, Ferguson, Spratley and George all chipped in towards a Beds total of 110 that looked unlikely at one stage and also looked as though it wouldn’t be enough.
It was the Bedouins bowling performance that won the game though. Open GI were certainly carrying enough firepower to out-do the Beds total. Spratley and Gregory opened the bowling and bowled their allotted 4 overs straight through. They immediately built pressure on the batsmen with the first 6 overs seeing only 19 runs conceeded with two wickets falling in that time. Each bowler claiming a wicket with Hill J taking a good catch behind the stumps and debutant Ferguson with a difficult catch made to look easy in the deep. Spratley finished with 1 for 19 and Gregory 1 for 15.
The skipper then brought himself on and had an immediate impact on the game taking two wickets with his first two balls; a sharp stumping from Hill J. who gave another excellent performance with the keepers gloves and then a caught and bowled. He finished with 2 for 9 from two overs. At the other end Goodman was tidy and eventually finished with 1 for 16 from four overs.
The game started to swing Open GI’s way when Bywater and George came on to bowl. Both struggled to find their usual tight line and length. George eventually had to be withdrawn through injury and was replaced by Goodman. Bywater (3 for 17) eventually found his rhythm and although Open GI had had a couple of good overs, he and Goodman managed to put a strangehold on things and eventually Open GI fell 14 runs short.
It was a classic example of why we all play this brand of cricket. Both teams played to win, but both did it with a smile on their faces and the result was, everyone had a very enjoyable evening rounded off with another first-class buffet.
The Beds now face a difficult trip away to Kinlet where they were well and truly trounced last year. They will need to be on top form for that one.