My turn To Slog?

By Jonnyboy
May 29 2008

Jonnyboy reports on a slightly damp but ultimately victorious day for Middlesex. Those of us who are able to decode Jonnyboy's youthful use of nicknames, abbreviations and taglines should almost feel as though we were there. Others might use this excellent report as an educational tool through which to learn the lingo.

Crusaders thwart Eagles' No.1 Effort despite Flying Dutchman heroics

A gloomy Lord's awaited us as we arrived about an hour late due to "unforeseen parking circumstances". I was delighted to see that we had started well in overcast conditions strongly favouring the seamers and that Dirk the "Straggler" had taken his 1st wicket, at the hands of the unfortunate Mark Pettini who, in the process of collecting another duck is becoming very much like our own Ed of old times.

Before long Finny snared Varun Chopra with a good-length ball edged to Godleman at slip. Essex were in trouble at 61-4. I was thoroughly impresssed with the new and improved electronic scoreboards, although somewhat disappointed at the lack of the fielder information which I felt was a great advantage of the Lord's scoreboards.

With 4 wickets down, the Flying Dutchman entered, and his intentions were made clear almost immediately with some ferocious hitting resulting in some boundaries and a maximum or three.

Together with wickie James Foster, they appeared to turn their innings on its head, the likes of Nannes, Finn & co. struggling to find a breakthrough and even desperate attempts from vice-captain Ed Joyce could not salvage anything.

As the innings approached the home straight, Tim Murto was drafted back in to the attack in an optimistic attempt to stop the partnership. And it worked almost immediately, Foster departing and then Middlebrook soon after, and the brace of wickets was a just reward for a fantastic spell of bowling.

There was a short rain disruption from some persistant drizzle which became heavy, and from then on there were short spells of light rain, stopping play during the Middlesex innings, and again after which decided the game with the Crusaders above the D/L Par score.

Meanwhile the Eagles finished on an impressive 244 in difficult conditions for bat yielders.

More light rain in the interval did not halt the resumation of play, and the Crusaders got off to a fine and steady start and developed a half-century partnership before the Captain was trapped lbw by the ever impressive David Masters.

I was expecting Dawid to make his grand entrance next but surprisingly enough Udal walked down the steps in an unusual pinch hitting role for a 39yo.

However my perhaps over exuberant apprehensiveness was soon dismissed by "Shaggy" as after a few hit and misses and air slogs he got bat on ball to all parts of the ground in fine fashion.

A pretty nasty incident soon followed when he was struck on the arm by an wild full toss from Alex Tudor and he appeared to be hurt at first and I soon feared a broken arm. However after some treatment and relaxing of the arm it looked like some bad bruising and he soon continued, albeit not really able to continue slogging and he was out after the immediate arrival of a straight ball from Kaneria.

Malan blocked a few balls and a few overs later the rain returned together with dark clouds and play stopped and the conditions did not improve sufficiently for play to continue, and the Crusaders were deemed victorious thanks to the D/L.