unstoppable
Steelback Slaughter
unstoppable
By Grockle
July 18 2007
Marcus celebrates his return to the international fold by murdering Northants with the bat (with a liittle help from his opening partner) while the old fogey and his mate blast them with the ball. When was the last time Somerset took maximum points for batting and bowling AND won three games in a row? Essex must be a bit nervous and we must be feeling it's popssible!!
unstoppable
July 18 2007
Marcus celebrates his return to the international fold by murdering Northants with the bat (with a liittle help from his opening partner) while the old fogey and his mate blast them with the ball. When was the last time Somerset took maximum points for batting and bowling AND won three games in a row? Essex must be a bit nervous and we must be feeling it's popssible!!
v Northamptonshire LVCC2 @ Taunton Friday 13 July 2007
Back to the long stuff then after a pretty poor showing in the very short stuff. This is the competition we seem to be excelling in at the moment and we start the second half of the season near the top and with two consecutive big points wins in the bank. What has the break done to us?
Well Langer seems to believe that we were on a winning track with the side we had and has made few changes to the last Championship side.
Trescothick, Edwards, Langer, Hildreth, White, Trego, Kieswetter, Blackwell, Jones, Caddick, Willoughby
Matt Wood is still waiting for White to leave at the end of the season but Michael Munday is making an impressive showing in the seconds...that is if the rain ever stops!!
We win the toss and decide to give the Steelbacks first bash on the wicket. They come out to dull and quite dismal conditions and Messrs Caddick and Willoughby immediately get back into the 'swing' so to speak and make full use of the weather. Rogers goes at 27 to the old man of the side and the dangerous Afzaal follows him mercifully quickly to the same man. Charl takes out Peters and by the time Sales has become Caddick's third victim the vistors are in damage limitation mode asa very bullish AC goes for them in full "I'm good enough to play for England" mood. 66 for 4 and only Klusener really holding up the Somerset train.
Enter Mr Jones who removes both "South Africans", Klusener and Wessels at 116 before the fourth man Mr Trego takes over and sends Wakely and Van der Wath back well before 200. The last three put up a bit of resistance and get the score over 200 but this only brings on the slows and Cameron dispatches them at 211 and 221. All out in 61 and a half overs and still time for us to have a bit of a bat. Good all round perfromacne by the bowlers. Everyone got something. Caddy got 3 for 70 and Whitey got 2 for 9 off 3.3!!
Is Taunton becoming a minefield? Well not for us as Trescothick and Edwards find none of the problems that beset the Northants line-up and have amassed 77 by the end of the day
Day 2
"Bat them off the park" must have been Justin's orders at the start of the second day because the openers took everyone apart. When Edwards went four short of his hundred at 217, Langer just came in and did the same thing. It was 303 when MT went four short of his 150 and that only brought James Hildreth to the crease to support his captain to 371 with a quickfire 51 before he fell and Cameron White arrived to push the score over 400 and see his captain leave with 83.
The second half of the side didn't provide as much batting excitement but by the time Caddick was bowled by Van der Wath we had 459 on the board and had almost 7 sessions to bowl them out. But ther was weather and it was getting worse! Northants foound out how bad it could be as they nearly reached our first day end of time total of 77. They fell 2 short and had lost 3 wickets in the process to Caddick and Willoughby who both took wickets with their first ball - giving poor old Rogers a royal duck and 9 for the game!
Day 3
Not a lot. A day of waiting for the rain to stop and not much happening when it did. The groundstaff did a superb job of getting any play at all but about 4:30 there was enough time for the visitors to add 2 runs to their Day 2 total and we all hoped and prayed that we would have enough time on the last day to get them out without having to bat again.
Day 4
It started well. Sales and Lucas went to the opening bowling pair for very little. Wessels kept us at bay but it was Klusener and Wakeley who really got the Northants innings going and put on a considerable score with the mighty Springbok going over three figures to 122 before caddick came back and got him via White. Time was running out and the score was rising. They passed the bat again score and kept going with Van der Wath standing in the way significantly.
When I got in at 5:00 we had just taken the last wicket courtesy of White and had 16 overs to get a score of 121 in bright but overcast conditions. Caddick had another 4 and the CW's had most of the rest. Ian Blackwell had returned to the bolwing crease with excellent figures of 12 overs at a run an over!
So...Trescothick and Edwards. 8 an over and not a lot of time? No problem. They just took anyone apart. Even when Marcus pulled his inner thigh, they simply brought out Kieswetter to run for him and the youngster made him look very impressive between the wickets. He even ran a four - not something Banger is hugely well known for!
It was masterful. Neil Edwards is no longer the follower. he murdered bolwers whenever they gave him anything wide. he fell short of another half ton by 4 but he took the wind out of the sails of Sales' men and they were gone well before he was!
White supported his Number 1 as he passed 50 and simply stopped running by hitting boundaries. There wasn't a lot left ot do. So Marcus finished it off with a massive six and we all marvelled at this side who couldn't buy a win last year and now have 66 points from 3 games in such majestic fashion. A 9 wicket win with 3.3 overs to spare and another win in less than three days.
Who reckons they aren't a Championship contending side now?
Four day cricket boring? Taunton an unforgiving featherbed? Are you lot watching the same games as I am?
Glorious!
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