Wizards Spell Bound by Canes
I could picture old man Griff, sat at home, rocking in his armchair questioning the reliability of a stand-in captain and a team with more resemblance to a patchwork cloth than a professional outfit that had such a glorious season last time around. He needent have worried. The Canes troops were rallied by a fired up Dave Stagg, the pressure of Griffs statistically motivated piercing gaze was lifted and we were hoping to bat first and put on a massive total of around 170 runs……we lost the toss, a bad start.
Skipping out into the field, a team of fine athletes led my Morgan throwing a ball further than i can hit one and Dave Stagg doing laps like a pumped up greyhound around the wicket, a buzz on excitement filled us. Jeffreys was thrown the ball to open and with overhead cloud, a shiny new ball and good line and length the first wicket wasn’t long in the waiting, the batsmen edging to Nathan Rees is the slips (a position Griff would never have a fielder) in his first over. Runs were few and far between as the opening bowlers restricted the WAG to very little more than hard running ones and two’s. Jeffreys then eliminated the captain of the WAG with a yorking swinger and the umpire raised the finger despite the batsmens cries of ‘That was a bit far down the pitch’. The Canes were a visibly confident team by this point, plenty of banter circulating under D.S.’s captaincy, a complete change from the nervous wrecks that met the Eclipse, catches a plenty followed, Nathan Rees taking another using a combination of his hands, then adams apple, then elbows to finally get hold of the ball. Jaffa lurching forward to run in and take a spectacular effort off a looping top edge. Danny looked like he was back to his teens bounding around ‘Cat like’ behind the stumps and taking a marvelous catch in the process. Gareth came on and took a wicket on his debut with his first ever Canes Ball, he looks like a useful addition!! J.J took a couple and has an action that reminds me of when Dannys mate Alex used to play for us, just as accurate but not as fast. Barry, Imran, Stagg Senior, Rees & Imran all finished with decent figures. I think it’s fair to say Mouth & Morgan didn’t fair so well with combinations of no-balls, wides and boundaries being their main issue. In general though, the Wizards were struggling to cope with sharp fielding and accurate bowling and were finally restricted to 93 off 18 overs.
The response was never going to be anything other than aggressive, Morgan & Barry opened the batting, Morgan being dropped on what would have been a hatrick of ducks. A couple of slapped fours and nurdled singles saw the canes start well after that, then Morgan went as his bails were clipped swinging big, Barry followed suit in much the same fashion and in came a new partnership, JJ who put on an outstanding 41, i must admit I was concerned at his Jeremy Evans like padding up at the first few balls but what followed was quality stuff. New lad Gareth who following his first ball wicket then hit a first ball 4 and a had a nice little knock before departing, quality stuff for the stats! Nathan Rees came in when Gareth departed, he swung an missed 1st time before dispatching the following 2 balls for consecutive 6′s. The style in which the boundaries flowed was classy, JJ reverse swept a single which was bang on his middle stump and was definately LBW if he’d missed it and there were cut shots, drives and lots of fetching from the trees for the fielders to do. Imran had a cameo at the end when JJ played a shot too many but the canes were home and dry with 8 overs to spare.
M.O.M. – J.J. – A nice 41 knock, a wicket or two and sharp in the field.
- Jaffa