v Worcestershire @ Bath CC2 8 June 2005

Scorecard

Festival Website

Oh to be at Bath now that June is here.  Graeme Smith's first 'home' game is questionable.  Not because Bath isn't a wonderful place to watch cricket but because there are questions about whether it actually is in the county at all (What the hell is BANES for Heaven's sake).  He takes with him into Festival country the bowling 'skills' of Richard Johnson and Andrew Caddick (of blessed memory - hope you enjoyed the knees up a the Brazz on Saturday) and Sanath makes his last Championship appearance - hoping to make it a memorable one.  No place for James hildreth though as Matt Wood gains the selectors favour instead.  The full side is;

Graeme Smith, Sanath Jaysuriya, Mike Burns, John Francis, Matt Wood, Ian Blackwell, Aaron Laraman, Rob Turner, Richard Johnson, Andrew Caddick and Simon Francis.

And that is probably the way they'll line up to bat.  How fit are Johnson and Caddick?  Well Caddy should be well rested but I have my doubts about Johnno.  One can only hope he is fully recovered or that the injury was a minor distraction.  I am surprised at Hildreth's removal but Mike Burns does seem to have come back into some form which we all hope will be long term.  There will be a lot of dispirited people at the ground today gentlemen expecting some atonement on the field for a week of very poor cricket.

Bath expects I'm afraid!

Day 1

And the boys with the bat deliver! GS won the toss and marched out with John Francis to start the Somerset innings in the glorious Bath sunshine in front of a very decent crowd for the first day.  Loverly spot it is!  John didn't have long to get into the festival mood though as he was caught behind after one ball of the second over, bowled by Mason.  Not a good start....mumbling from the members.

Smith is very tall, a solid looking bloke who, my sources tell me, is very focussed on the job in hand and keen and eager to get on with it.  He's certainly an imposing figure at the crease.  It all looks the part, he's even got a full set of the new gear to play in and very smart it looks to (even though the Mitsubishi rep behind me was confused as to who was who because he didn't recognise the Somerset shirts - err...everyone is in white mate!)

Burns comes in at number 3 and seems to take an age to get off the mark, but he does with a boundary.  We slowly move along, 24 off the first 10 overs is not exactly flying along.  There are mumbles about Mike B at number 3 which he does nothing to stop by occasionally flashing at one "....he just can't help himself..." murmers one old lag!  Eventually he flashes once too often and is pouched by Hick in the slips and we are 40 for 2.

This brings up one of the possible competitions of this match.  Sanath Jayasuriya v Charminder Vaas (not sure about the first name Mr V).  SJ has expressed the desire to leave on a high note and conditions today are in his favour - as he shows by getting off the mark with a boundary from his first ball.  Just a comment on the kit.  The captain seems to have the whole lot...why is SJ playing in a shirt without his name on it and an old pair of trousers with no piping down them?  Can't we afford to kit our visitors out properly?

Right kit or not, SJ seems to be relaxed and at one with his game.  He says hello to his Sri Lankan team-mates by depositing the ball well over his head to the bowls club boundary and sets his stall out for a good score.  He is soon catching up with his boss as we move to 81 off 25 - the score has almost doubled in 10 overs but we're still going steadily against decent Worcestershire bowling.

Mr Smith is the first to 50 (just) off 99 balls but 6 runs later, the little man joins him with a 72 balls half ton of his own but it doesn't last and Graeme snicks one off Vaas, stomps arond the pitch in disgust and trolls off back to the pavilion with 55 to his name. Enter MJ Wood.  Sanath now decides to take charge and the two pass the 150 mark looking in little trouble but finding it hard to increase the rate, they do work at it for about half and hour and manage a run per minute until SJ mistakes the trajectory of a ball from Mason and skies one.  He's not at all pleased either - he was going well but you takes the bad with the good and at leastt he looked like the man we expected to have this season.  Matt is joined by Blackwell and there is an immediate increase in tension among the 'Pears'.  They want the big man out as soon as possible but it is Woody who nearly goes at 161 when a big snick is just not reached by the Worcestershire slips.

On comes the spin at the Sportsground end (Price) and in comes the close fielder in armour.  Off goes the first ball of his session to the bondary from the bat of IB.  The 200 arrives in the 59th.  Blacky starts to open thee broad shoulders but he is being tracked and kept pace wwith by his partner as he moves the score to 212 with a 6 to the same boundary and the opposition change the spin to Batty at the Pavilion end and bring back the pace at the other.  The batsmen seem intent on racing each other to the 50 mark again!  Mattt produces a lovely cut off Batty to go to 49 and in the next over, Ian straight drives Vaas to reach 48 and then a single to take him to the same score as his partner.

It's Matt first, 92 balls, 8 fours and 1 six, closely followed by his bigger mate in 66 balls with two less boundaries but the same number of sixes.  It all seems to be going swimmingly until Blacky flips Batty to mid-wicket and goes for 54.  Wood looks in no trouble and has been the most confident striker of the ball we've seen today, no nerves and perfect execution of the task at hand.  Rob Turner is the next man in, again off the mark with a boundary (although he still shouts "Waiting" as the ball streaks to the boards) and it's 261 for 5 at Tea.

Mason is back on after the break with a mission.  He is extracting loads of bounce from the pitch but not making the batsmen play enough to be really dangerous.  Unfortunately, he gets Noddy to play and he succumbs at 280, gloving one to the grateful fielders.  But we move to 300 with Lazza at the crease and Wood arrives on 99 20 runs later.  A very decent return is capped as he slides a single and takes the applause for a ton off 166 balls with 16 fours and the six, puts his helmet back on and watches the "languid" Laraman weakly flip the next ball into Worcestershire hands,  9 overs to go and out comes Johnson.

Now Johnno is somewhat unusual as a tailender.  He has shots, he likes to bat and he's an absolute swine for bowlers if he gets his eye in.  Hhe gets off the mark with a flash to the boundary but then, just to show he can do the good stuff as well, he sublimly straight drives a four past the bowler, who hardly sees it.  The 350 is reached with 30 balls to go and the fun comes to an end when Johnson snicks to Pipe for a very nice 21.  358 for 7.

Wood's day no doubt.  Good support early one and at the end and more men past 50 than I can remember in a long time.  It was a long day in the field for the visitors and they are going to need about 380 to get back on track.  A bit of a wag on Day 2 and then the bowlers onto the stage seems to be the order of the day.  Let's hope they don't let this excellent first day get away from us!!

Day 2

I am afraid this is going to be an erratic report because I didn't see Day 2 and although I will see most of 3 and 4 and the Sunday game, I won't get near a machine until Monday to put the report in.  So...anyone watching the second half of this game and wanting to offer comments, please use the forum and I'll cut and paste important bits onto this page early next week.

So, did we keep it together on the second day?  Well we did get our first maximum batting bonus points of the season by taking the score over 400.  More than I expected I have to admit, especially as Matt Wood's contribution to that was a mere extra 10 runs.  The major contributor was Mr Caddick who added 44 with the century maker to get over the magic score and with Frank Senior adding 5 after Vaas bowled the big lanky one, we finished on 408.  A pity Matt didn't carry his bat but fitting that he should be the last man out after his sterling efforts to get us there...with good support from the rest of the lads it has to be said.

Now the question was, were we up to the task with the ball?  Worcecstershire are a strong line-up but they are re-building after the loss of a number of stalwarts.  They have an 18 year old opener and we needed to get in there!  And Caddick did.  They were 3 for 1 as he had Davies caught by his captain in 3 minutes (less time than John F was at the crease on Day 1).  But it didn't last as the young guy Moore and that Hick bloke put on 105 for the second.

Blackwell had the problems this time and our issue was fielding for the first time.  This area of our game has improved dramatically this season, but not today.  Ian fluffed two chances and in the end it cost us well over 100 runs (and possibly the game?).  Young Moore was given a lifeline early and then, after Caddick got the "Hickmonster" 5 runs past his 50, IB did it again, early in Ben Smith's innings (single figures I think).  NNow as he went on to put another 112 on with Moore and was unbeaten at the end of the day on 107, you could probably put that one down as an important missed opportunity!  He did get Moore in the end when he was finally brought on to bowl - a little late given the rate of scoring.

Johnson got the other wicket, that of de Bruyn, later in the day but they are 328 for 4 and there needs to be much wicket taking in the first hour of Day 3 for us to keep the hopes of turning this one around alive.  It looks like a Bath draw with the option of Somerset throwing away a further game if we don't keep our 'game faces' on.  But they are still 80 behind and the sun is out, the sky is blue, there's nothing there to spoil the view and I'm off to Bath to see Day 3!!

Day 3

Once more from the jaws fo victory!  Day 3 was something not to be seen really.  With Smith getting 140 and support from Vaas and others, the Worcestershire total crept to 423 before we got rid of them.  Caddy got a five-fer (and they've been rare across the board this season) but for 132 and Johnson got 3 for 93 with Ian B taking the other two for a mere 58 off nearly 20 overs. But confidence was high, it was only a lead of 15. We'd done it once, there was no reason why we couldn't do it again.

Well, actually there was...we'd already done it once.  Our season has been marred by inconsistent batting and bowling performances where we cannot sustain effort throughout a game and this one was to prove no different.  John Francis ended a poor game for him with another 2 ball failure as Vaas took the first before Mason tore through our top end.  Smith went at 10 and Jayasuriya ended a woeful Championship career with Somerset with a paltry 21, clean bowled.  38 for 3 with only Burns offering any 'stickyness'.  The collapse continued throughout the afternoon as Wood, Blackwell and Turner all tried to stop the rot and support 'George' but none of them could manage it.   We were 112 for 6 when Johnson came to the crease.  Aaron Laraman was being held back for some reason, either there is no confidence in his batting or he is nursing an injury of some kind but once Johnno had departed, without troubling the scorers himself, he arrived. Just in time to say goodbye to the stalwart of the second innings, Burns who left one run short of his 50. 

AL hung around a while with Caddick and added a few to make the total a little more repsectable but, as usual, just before the end of the the day, he also departed leaving us on 151 overnight with the last two at the crease and a Worcestershire victory expected sometime around lunchtime on Day 4.

Day 4

It came, as we knew it would just before lunch.  Frank Senior added 1 in the morning before Caddy was bowled by Vaas and they needed 137 to win with a whole day of sun to get them in.

They obviously wanted to get home quick because they came out all guns blazing with Moore and Davies versus Caddick and Johnson.  We hoped for a special Caddick day, were dashed in our hopes when he bowled four wides and then elated the next ball as Smith took a catch from Davies and we had them at 10 for 1.  Hick arrived and was in real trouble first ball as Caddick tucked him up, all he failed to do was hit it!!

But they kept on scoring.  Yo couldn't be sure whether the bowlers had them in touble or they were taking massive risks to get the runs.  There was a lot of playing and missing but there were also a lot of boundaries.  Caddick again went wayward with two consecutive no balls, one of which Hick hammered for four but then he had Hick caught by Burns for 17 and we still had hope at 48 for 2.

On it went, play and miss, hit for four, play and miss, another boundary.  Blackwell came on and Johnson  changed ends but the two batsmen were now set and the inevitable came closer with every crash to a boundary board.  Ben Smith carried on his first innings with 39 off 41 and Moore hit 66 and we died about one o'clock.

Bad end to a great start.  Lovely weather but you can't play well for 48 hours of a four day game and expect to win it.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon