By Grockle
July 12 2006
The last time we played Glamorgan we were in an entirely different position. How the mighty are fallen! Tonight we are looking to save face and not finish bottom of our region. It's not exactly gone to plan.
v Glamorgan 20/20 @ Taunton Tuesday 11 July 2006
Andy Caddick returns to the fold and we go in bowler heavy resting Arul Suppiah and bringing in both young seamers Andrew and Trego. No Richard Johnson tonight but otherwise the normal faces. Glamorgan choose to chase and put us in. Both sides appear in almost identical kits - not the first time this season that that has happened - if they are all going to come out the same can I make a suggestion? Let's have them all in white!!
Matt Wood has been the apprentice to the batting pyrotechnics of Cameron in this competition while Justin has been 'sucking it and seeing' what this format tastes like. Tonight the Aussie visitor decides to have a go and we get off to a big start as the first boundary turns into a Langer onslaught which see him go to 31 in 2.4 overs and the home side to 50 off 3.1. This could be a biggy if the Welsh don't get a check on the scoring rate and they start to do just that with better line and length from a big bloke with no hair (think it was Franklin), although his first ball was a bounder to rough up Woody which he ducked under while the umpire no balled the bowler!
Anyway, better bowling or not, we are on for a big 200 plus score with 71 in the first quarter. Langer goes to an excellent 50 as Crofty comes on to bowl and is murdered with 2 fours from his first balls to the VC. Up comes the hundred, just before the end of the 8th! But the visitors have put the brakes on and losing Wood just before the century didn't help. The captain is a little circumspect at first because of this and we hold fire into the 11th adding a mere 15 by the halfway stage - not the usual attack.
But it could never have lasted and both White and Langer put the foot down as we move into the second half of the innings. The 150 arrives in the 13th over and some of the Welsh boys are starting to receive some significant hammer. It could have gone even further had the TV been here because at 165 Langer is run out - a decision that would never have been upheld with a replay available - with the umpire raising the finger to a prone Aussie lying full length with his bat in the crease! Nevertheless a real rousing 78 and a great indicator of what we might expect in the 40 over stuff. In comes Keith Parsons to push us past 168 with 5 to go - 200 plus is on but Cameron drives one and is caught very low and very well for 36. Keith keeps up the momentum and we pass 200 with a four but he is bowled comprehensively next ball for 266. James Hildreth is in great need of an inspiring innings, unfortunately an ill advised attempt at a reverse sweep/flick without checking whether there is a fielder there puts paid to this one as he is caught at 217...we finish on 219. A decent score but we will have to better than normal in the bowling department to defend it and Andy Caddick needs to have learned a few things from his last 20/20 appearance.
A quick change around and Charl Willoughby starts our defence from the OP end....and gets mauled as 2 of the first three deliveries are misfielded for boundaries behind the stumps (one a no ball) and grant and Powell pile into the South African to plunder 17 off his first. What are we in for we start to think. Well a decent performance from his opening partner Mr Caddick from the River if his first is to be any indicator! He goes for a miserly 5 and has the batsman wondering. Gareth finds himself in the attack early but he gets some tap from the OP as well. Glamorgan are 40 after 3!! But we come back and Caddick strikes first with a boundary catch in his second at a score of 41 followed by another thrifty over that yields only 4 runs. Nevertheless the dragoons are up with the rate required as they pass 50 after 6.
Mr C's third doesn't go as well as McCullum comes down the pitch to him and puts one on the Botham stand roof but the paceman shows his experience and forces Powell to sky one into the safe hands of Parsons at 61 for his second wicket. He almost gets another in the over but the second skier is swirling a little more and Trigger drops it on the boundary. The Glams seem determined to get another man caught as Charl returns and another sky rocket is put down by KP in the semi-deep on the Brewhouse side...are these catches going to be significant is the thought going through a number of minds in the stands!
With 100 coming up in the 9th and 108 on the board by the midway point this game is still tense and too close to call. There have been a number of run out appeals, especially a sharp effort from Gareth Andrew in the cemetary corner where he dived to save a four, flipped up and speared it in where the stumps were split and the runner was...well in according to the umpire and out according to about 6 and a half thousand unofficial observers! 137 at 12 is too close to what we had and we all welcome the demise of McCallum on 145 caught by Justin Langer off the bowling of White. The skipper has marshalled his bowlers much better tonight and even gave Wes D a bowl - not the greatest of overs going for23 off 2 but mixing it up is keeping the batsmen honest and the score under ours.
Keith Parson is brought on for the 15th and immediately breaks through with Franklin LBW at 167. The game is definitely on and the pressure is mounting on the Welshmen. Trego gets a bowl and gets Hemp at 176 and the pendulum swings more in our favour. The total is gettable but the rate increases every ball and we are keeping them unsettled. It comes down to 29 off 12 and CW calls on CW to keep us in it. 17 off this one would give them the game. A tight over would keep it with us.. Well Charl delivers. 190 at the start of the over becaomes 193 at the end and they still need a huge score.
The final 6 balls fall to Peter Trego who has to follow his left handed team mate and starts uncertainly as another one bounces off the Botham, followed by a boundary on the third one. This game is still on if this continues!! But it doesn't as Trigger skittles Wharf and bowls out for 2!! 206 isn't enough and we are home.
And what have we learned? We can play this game and be confident at it. We can keep sides away from big scores at Taunton while making them ourselves. The problem is we can also look shoddy and be lax and we have done that too often in this tournament to be contenders in the next round. Instead a side we destryed comprehensively at the start of this contest will face Surrey while we look to the 40 over version for something more.
There were flashes...but we saw the crescent while others saw the whole of the moon! (The Waterboys)
Back to the bread and butter stuff on Friday with the return of the four dayers and then Kent for the first of the only competition we can still look at with realistic ambitions. The rest of the season starts here!!
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