The undefeated Indoor team were in action again, this time in the Cup 1/4 final against Hutton. The selectors had made the decision to drop Drew (too many wides, slow scoring rate & paying match fees with his children's pocket money were a few of the reasons). His replacement was George Davis as he'd played before (actually, it was his brother Joe who had played before!)
The skipper did the honours again, lost the toss & put in to bat first. Joshua & Nick did bat well against an accurate attack. The runs did come, just slower than usual, Nick getting to 23 before being run out. Joshua continued well, whilst Pooky had a brief stay at the crease before charging down the track only to be stumped by a mile. John hit a 4 first ball, which was positive, then that was about it. Joshua retired, putting Cheesey & George in together. George missed a straight one & Joshua rejoined the game, but edged one a couple of balls later. Cheesey, who batted well & saw us to relatively low 90, ran well & used the walls effectively, sensibly allowing a number of wides to pass down the legside.
So, defending 90 was our biggest challenge yet this season. Pooky bowled the opener in the first over & Cheesey kept runs to a minimum. George & John came onto bowl. Then, a few minutes that John wants to forget. First he got his finger tip to a lobbed catch, but no more. Secondly, he watched as Pooky droped one off his bowling. Thirdly, he dropped a caught & bowled, then feigned injury to cover up the mistake (thumb & little finger badly bruised whilst trying to type up this report). Fourthly, fielding off his own bowling, he hears a shout from his son that he has the ball covered. John jumps out of the way of the ball, blocking Joshua's view & the ball goes for 4. George ended up going for 22 runs, but as half were wides & no balls, he did bowl well most of the time. As usual John & Nick combined for a stumping, then Cheesy finished off the game with a couple of wickets & not much chance of batsmen scoring runs. Gt.Totham were helped by the fire alarm & evacuation announcement repeatedly sounding, probably distracting the batsmen, but, a win is a win.
We are now through to the finals day extravaganza in March.
Next game is a league match against Hutton, in 3 weeks time. So, hopefully, we will be more convincing than we were in this game.
