The Main man

By comebackgatt
April 10 2010

comebackgatt reports from New Road on the opening day of the brand new cricket season. It was time to meet up with friends on and off the field as three ex Middlesex players turned out against us. His detailed report follows the interesting day's play which swung one way then the other as weel as long lunches, vehgan sausage rolls and press passes!

Well it has finally arrived, the opening day of the season. Always a sense of excitement about what the summer might bring. I set off from Broadstairs late yesterday afternoon and stayed the night with friends who live just outside Worcester. My friend (Martin) then drove to us to the ground this morning, and by the time we parted up, we entered the ground about 10.45. It was at this point I realised I had brought the wrong mobile, and having made arrangements to meet up with Beefy Roberts, I also didn’t have his number with me. Sorry mate, perhaps next time.

First news was the teams and the toss. Shaggy took Kimmy’s advice and called heads and won the toss, interesting decision to field first, nice sunny day although the wicket seems to have a tinge of green about it. However, on checking with press box (my press pass comes in useful sometimes) I find out that with the exception of Derby at The Oval, all other sides have been inserted. As expected Newman and O’Brien make their Middle debuts whilst lining up against us are Scott, Richo and Whelan. Dial M and Finn open the bowling, this causes some discussion as to why O’Brien didn’t.

 Worcester get off to a steady start and after an hour or so, it is pretty uneventful. Dial M is tight as ever only conceding 6 runs from his 7 overs, but Finny is more expensive. O’Brien is brought on first change but didn’t look a bit like breaking through. The morning wore on and doubts about Shaggy’s decision were uppermost, and despite steady bowling by the Iceman and a couple of overs from the skipper the home team look comfortable at Lunch at 85-0, Mitchell 44 and Jacques 35 not out.

 Martin and I departed to have our lunch a tad concerned about how the rest of the day would go. However, I did remind Martin of the words of Richie Benauld, when putting a team always judge by the close of play score, not Lunch. Our lunch somewhat over ran and on returning to the ground we saw Worcester moved to 100 -0 and Mitchell through to his fifty. At the moment we can’t buy a wicket. Well that’s why we love cricket cos it keeps proving you wrong, Ian O’Brien gets his first Middle wicket trapping Jacques plum in front and it is 105-1 with the Aussie gone for 47, home skipper Vic Solanki on his way to the crease. He didn’t last too long getting a nick to a straight ball from berg and being caught behind (125-2.)

Mitchell still looked in good nick but with the total at 143 the Iceman showed the virtues of bowling wicket to wicket when he lured Moeen to edge another delivery to Simpson behind the stumps and it was 143-3 and we were feeling a lot happier. In came Namibia born Alexei Kerverzee ( what a wonderful name) and immediately started putting bat to ball. He and Mitchell certainly livened things up with a stand of 64, before Steven Finn was brought back into the attack and straight away started bowling with real pace. He ripped out Kerverzee’s off stump to bring to an end a bright and breezy knock of 47 (including 10 fours) and shortly after got the key wicket Mitchell well caught at slip by Strauss, 211-5, Mitchell 85. That brought Ben Scott to the wicket, he got a good welcome from the large number of Middle fans, and it was no real surprise when Hi Fi greeted him with a short delivery, smiles all round.

 Tea 213-5, Smith 3, Scottie still to get off the mark.

We sat back and enjoyed the spring sunshine happy with the scoreboard. Out came my home made vegan sausage rolls (yummy) and our coffee flasks. Nothing stronger as Martin doesn’t drink and I’m on medication at the moment that doesn’t allow it. Couple of old bores really. Checked up on the county scores and found out young Billy the Kid was going well for Essex.

Play recommenced and it wasn’t too long before Finny picked up his third wicket getting Scottie nibbling outside the off stump and Simpson took his third catch. Four balls later and it was Groundhog Day as Andrew went for nought the same way. 214-7 and hopes of bowling them out for under 250. At that point the home team had lost four wickets for just six runs, with Hi Fi taking 4-1 However Smith and Jones had other ideas as they took the score up to 271, not without a few scares, when Jones was caught off the bowling of Udal. The tail didn’t last too long after that, Ben Smith went for a fine 46, caught at slip to give Hi- Fi five wickets and the Whelan was caught behind for five and Worcester were all out for 287, losing 10 wickets for 182. Finn 5-69, Berg 3-62.

 We calculated there were six overs to go to we prepared to leave as soon as the last ball was bowled as martin was driving to the station to catch the 7.30 back to London. Sadly the edge was taken off the day when Strauss was out, yes CAUGHT SCOTT, off the bowling of Jones. That brought O’Brien in as night watchman and he and Newman survived to close at 12-1.

All in all, a pretty good opening day of the season, honours just about even I think, should be good day on Saturday.