v Worcestershire Pro40 @ Taunton Sunday 27 August 2006

Scorecard

Andy Caddick leads a side that looks remarkably like the one who wasted Gloucestershire in the week today.  The only change is the return of Peter Trego at the expense of Robin Lett.  As the official site points out, that means that the top 8 of our side today are all South West peninsular men developed here.  Wood, Edwards, Suppiah, Hildreth, Parsons, Durston, Spurway and Trigger.  Topped off with a Somerset through and through captain in Caddick and a couple of "imports" - South East softie Richard Johnson (love you really RJ) and adopted 2006 hero Charl Willoughby.

Hick is coming and that always brings a frisson of concern to a home Somerset side but we all need to see signs that our guys are moving forward in the right direction after a couple of promising performances in the past fortnight.  IF the bowling is anything like it was this week then we can handle Greame and his friends from "Pearland" and we all want to see Somerset developed batting prowess start to show that it is more than just a pipedream in Brian's brain.  Maybe today is the day to put optimism back on the agenda.

Technical difficulties may stop me reporting from the game but I'll give it a go so keep having a look.  If it is possible then the first attempt will be about 3:00-ish but the quality may be poor and may need revising later.  See you there is you're coming.  Lots of overnight rain but it is brightening up now (10:14 am Bicknoller time).

Sorry the technical difficulties and sheer exasperation combined to make a report from the ground impossible.  You really have to laugh or you'd weep buckets.  I have been watching for a long time but I've rarely seen such an abject batting performance, so far removed from being in touch with the game situation as to be embarrasing and totally unworthy of a first class county!  We were never in this game because we never seemed to be interested in being in it once Worcestershire had posted their total.  There is starting slowly and there is showing no intention of doing anything else but survive in a lost cause.  The supporters saw the second form today irrespective of what the actual game plan was.

It started off promisingly.  The Pears won the toss and decided to bat first, the crowd was upbeat after the week's win and there was quite a few of them.  Charl and AC opened the attack and put in good first overs and at a score of 4 Moore made a huge error and decided to run for a single that was never there.  Vincent stayed where he was and they were one down.  Captain Solanki took charge and with his partner started to get to grips with our opening pair.  Vincent in particular attacked and in the 7th deposited Willoughby over the Old Pavilion for the first time. The Worcestershire 50 arrived in 7.3 overs and Vincent's personal milestone (off 30 balls) came a two overs later as they moved to 74 off 10.

The change of bowling came around the 14th when Arul took over at the River while Johnno took station at the OP.  The 95 at the start of the 14th became 100 but just after that, Sam Spurway (who had been standing up to Charl earlier) stumped Solanki with a little help from his pads.  102 for 2 looked promising and the Suppiah/Johnson partnership was holding the batsmen in check until Vincent cut loose again and sixed Johnson in the 19th.  133 at 20 overs.

Wes was introduced in the 22nd and Parsons replaced RJ in the 23rd, just after the visitors had passed 150 - a 300-ish score looked on I am afraid.  Vincent reached an excellent ton in the 27th off 80 balls with 3 sixes and 10 fours and the triple did look decidedly possible.  However, Arul had a few things up his sleeve to push that possibility back.  Firstly, he combined with Wesley to remove Smith by catching him in the deep.  Vincent then mistimed a ball from Durston and clipped it straight to KP.Davies and Hick had to consolidate and that meant they had only reached 188 by the 30th. 

Arul now produced one excellent over where he bowled the said Davies and then had Batty caught behind first ball.  173 for 3 in the 27th had become 192 for 6 in the 31st.  This muffled Hick for a while but didn't seem to have any effect on his new partner Sillence who went for almost everything.  We tried manfully to keep them both in check but the score passed 200 in the 35th and even though Charl and Richard J returned for the last two at each end, Sillencde took his side past 250 and himself past 33 before the innings finished on 268.

It could have been worse.  The score was less than they could have made and, on our pitch, not out of our reach.  It is hard to see who would get the big end of that score from our present line-up but we had enough batsmen who were capable of plus 50 scores to at least have a reasonable chance of making a dent in it.

Or so many around me thought.

This doesn't however seem to have been the view in the Somerset dressing room.  Neil Edwards and Matt Wood came out to do battle wiith Zaheer Khan and some bloke called Mason.  I've heard of one of them but not the other.  You would have thought we were playing against McGrath and Lee in their pomp.  Admitedly, Neil is a four day opener and his role seems, sensibly, to be the anchor around which the other batsmen play.  Kahn was a handful but Woody seemed so completely out of touch that we didn't make a scoring shot for two overs (2 wides were all we collected) and his first runs came from an up the wicket punch for one.  He was probably dropped on the fourth ball he faced, waqs nearly caught and bowled trying the punch again in the fourth before he played on and left the field after being neither use nor ornament.

Who is out next but Peter Trego!!  What was the plan in this?  The man had been picked and hadn't bowled a ball (possibly because the spinners seemed to be holding their own) and is now sent in out of position to do what?  If his role was to pinch hit, then why didn't they open with him?  If it was to push the score along then we weren't really far enough into the game for the situation to have been deemed as needing that.  Anyway, it made no difference because Kahn had him LBW first ball and Hildreth came out to face the hat-trick ball, which he snicked for 4.

We staggered to 18 for 2 after 5 overs and pushed that on to 39 for 2 after 10.  Worcestershire were putting on every spinner they had!  We couldn't play any of them.  Names like Price (?) and Solanki were turning us inside out.  We couldn't sweep, we couldn't drive, we could only play it to the close fielders and watch the score get completely away from us.  They gave us some pace with Sillence from the River end, we made him look world class. The first time Edwards left his crease to attack he was bowled and KP comes into the game at the same time as they introduce a spinner I do know.  Batty opens with a maiden. 

Interest moves to a bunch of stewards dealing with a Marilyn Munroe male lookalike (not a flattering one).  Meanwhile the cricket rumbles to an inevitable conclusion as we pass 50 after 15.4 overs!!  James tries to push it on and gets himself stumped.  Wes is 'dropped' early as another maiden is accepted and the run rate passes 10 per over.  No one seems to have the faintest idea how to deal with this and we are all in a state of shock when Wes comes out of the shell and hits two consecutive fours in the 19th...we steam into the 60's!

At halfway we need 204 off 20 overs, the batsmen are conferring, Keith sixes Price and then Wes sixes Mason...are we seeing realisation that they need to push on?  Maybe but it is two boundaries and when KP chips one to a fielder then that little excitement is over and we struggle on to 83 for 5. Arul walks out with our last hope of making anything of this game, even though we are all aware that it is well past the time when we can do anything about winning it.  The objectives seem to have been - 1) Play out the 40 overs 2) Get off the mark, don't make a duck 3) Take absolutely no chances...oh yes and 4) Play to score the other side's total plus 1.

Almost over.  Wes goes big and dies to the hands of Sillence off Batty - 87 for 6.  Sam Spurway comes in and after 2 balls, Spike is criticising his batting.  Someone says "give him a chance he has only been in for two balls".  The next ball he is on his way back to the pavilion and we hope for a little bit of Worcestershire bashing before the end of the game as Johnson strides out to try and re-claim the Lawrence Trophy.  He gets us to 96 before he holes out for 8. The 100 comes up to a weak cheer in the 26th from a Caddick four but he goes next ball trying for another.  Willoughby stays a little while but the pain is all over at 108 and we finally stop threshing about in our death throes and give up entirely.

Pathetic.  Weak willed and unworthy.

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