The Wolfman's Cricket Blog

[someblokecalleddave]

How come you've lost interest in the forum?

[Chief Running Water]

Originally Posted by Wolf

I scored a quick and breezy 33* yesterday to finish the season, including three 4's and a 6.

How Wolf

You look alot like a youg Bob Willis.

[gundalf7]

yeah well done wolf and congrats on the well deserved awards

[Wolf]

Originally Posted by someblokecalleddave

How come you've lost interest in the forum?

I never really got into this forum after the move from Simply Cricket.

[Wolf]

I'm back for my monthly visit () just to say the indoor cricket is going fairly well for me, I feel my bowling is becoming better and better and I am doing well considering a few of the players play in the Birmingham Premier League. Batting is a bit mixed, I keep doing these walking drives and getting stumped but I was involved in a 54 partnership a few weeks ago which was nice. Team results are a bit mixed as well; main problem is getting enough runs on the board and we keep making silly errors in the field.

[Wolf]

Pathetic game for me on Saturday but we got the W.

I already had a scouting report from a friend who played a friendly there last week about how shocking the pitch was and it lived up to all expectations. It was just grass and mud. You could poke your finger through the surface. So it was low, slow but with the occasional steepling bounce that took your finger off. Also it was a big outfield with long grass.

Our captain walked straight past us without talking after the toss so we gathered we were batting (!). Our 1-6 was adults and 7-11 was kids. The make-up of our team also meant I had to drive there as with four of the adults going straight there we only has two qualified drivers, and I had managed to avoid driving for the whole of last season.

Anyway to cut a long story short we crawled to 102-9 off our 50 overs. I second top scored with 15 having a partnership of 30 with our top scorer (24). I think I am struggling to explain how bad the pitch was we knew anything over 100 would be competitive, we were aiming for 130 but the ball just wasn't coming onto the bat at all. Just couldn't time it at all you had to really force your strokes for it to go anywhere. My 15 took 15 overs I think.

We then shot them out for 40 after they were 30-0, so 10 wickets for 10 runs. Our captain who this pitch was made for (slow medium bowler) took 6 wickets for 3 runs and our leggie got the other 4. We did hold onto some quite brilliant catches including another diving one from me at cover and one hander over his head from one of our young guns.

[Virendersingh.berthwal]

Congrats W on the victory..
Batting on wet wicket is a challenge with slowness of the ball..did the balls bounced in between.....
Good fight back in the 2nd half...

Virender

[Wolf]

One of our players in the 3rds hit six sixes in the last over of their innings going from 110 to 146 in one over! Watch the 6th six on YouTube.

My team won again (of course we did) quite convincingly. Our next two fixtures are going to be crucial I think because both opposition are tough but we are beginning to dream of succesive promotions right now.

Pitch was a bit wet so we bowled first and skittled them out for 130. I bowled the worst spell of bowling ever, no rhythm, no accuracy, no pace but I still picked up 4 wickets (6-0-20-4). Two of my wickets I managed to get a bit of bounce and the batter could only fend them off to slip and I clean bowled the other two with balls that were gun barrel straight but they just missed.

We knocked that off for one wicket down, me being the wicket. I made 13 and was feeling really good but one ball just basically hit the wicket and rolled and I didn't play forward enough and got bowled. Disappointing because there was a 50 there for the taking but a 2nd wicket stand of over 100 made sure we cruised to victory

[Wolf]

I got a surprise promotion to the 4ths for the day, but obviously the people in charge expect me to be psychic because they didn't tell me and I only found out by complete chance, otherwise I most likely would have turned up for the 5th team match and not have played, which I wouldn't have been best pleased about. I didn't dare mention it though.

I batted first drop and made 17 before trying to hit the spinner down the ground and getting a top edge up in the air. Once again threw away a start, it's become a real problem. I need to work more on my convential shots so I don't feel I have to score with big hits. We were bowled out for 100, our #10 hitting a startling 24 to get us up to even to that. We had no chance in defending that because they were a good team and we only took one wicket.

I think our 4ths are really going to struggle this year, a lot of kids playing on Sat and they got like one run between them. They're going to have to step up to the plate at some point, which they are capable of doing. I'd rather play 5ths because I enjoy it there but I don't mind. The 5ths won again on Sat meaning we are running away with the league again, and it looks like we swap leagues with the 4ths because if we get promoted they will get relegated whether they finish in the bottom 2 or not.

[Wolf]

Game 1
Played for the 4ths again and bowled really well (as I said above) with absolutely no luck. I came on first change after a tight start and had a huge LBW appeal turned down first ball (umpire said he turned it down because he took a stride forward (pfft)). Almost all their runs came from edges (inside and outside) how they survived was generally a mystery to me. I bowled 7 overs for 16 before they took 12 off my final over with three fours. Our oppo reached 220 as they kept wickets in hand so they could hit some big shots in the last 10 overs.

In reply our opener hit a brilliant 80 and put us in a good position. I batted at 3 and was out for 4 bowled by a yorker. We looked on course for victory with 10 overs to go with 47 needed with 5 wickets left but the runs dried up, a couple of wickets fell and we ended up on 194-8 and a losing draw. Negative, negative because we had two big hitters at 10 + 11 but we didn't bring them in up the order.

Game 2
On Sunday I played for the Greenflies team. I'm keen on playing for this team a lot with season because your generally guaranteed a good bat and a bowl because the standard of the team is generally not great. The opposition we were playing were so, so poor but somehow we were at one point 19-7. I was out LBW for 2, such a lazy shot as usual and I am getting so annoyed about the mental side of my batting. I have promised myself to play my natural game and be more positive from now on because I hate prodding about. Our #3 dug us out of a big hole with 70* and we made 110-9 of our 40 overs. We then shot them out for 42, the less said about my bowling the better.

Game 3
On Wednesday I played in the T20 (ok 15 8 ball overs, which more or less equates to the same thing) knockout for the 4ths. I wasn't required to bat as we made 120-7 which we thought was good total on a wet track. I opened the bowling and my first three overs went for 12 (so a bloody good effort only 12 off 24 balls) but my final over went for 18!! Their #3 and #4 had come in and shown they were really good batsmen and smacked it around but I had their #4 plumb LBW and it wasn't given. They reached the total in the 12th over amazingly after such a slow start, we weren't helped by the fact we couldn't see a thing in the field because it was dark.

Game 4
Back in the 5ths. Raining. On and off all day. Turned into a 29 overs a side match. They managed to get 81-8 I took four wickets for 28 off 10(?) overs. I took 3 wickets in four balls at one point, and there was a dropped catch on my hattrick ball. We were 29-1 in reply when the rain came and this time it was permanent. Match abandoned.

Game 5
Played the team that got promoted with us last year (against whom I made 95 and took 4 wickets). Batted first and they made 155-9 and bowled nine wicket-less overs for 18. After a solid start we made hard work of that and I had to come in at the end and made a 20 not out, I scratched around a bit until with 3 overs to go I slogged and missed at two balls before connecting on the third and hitting a six. Two balls later and I hit a cover drive for four and we won by 2 wickets.

Game 6
Played for the Greenflies at one of the smallest grounds in the country. Bowled four overs 1 wicket for 22. Out for five. We won by three wickets.

Game 7
Saturday game again - we bowled them out for 108 and knocked them off for one down. I bowled 2-2-0-1 and wasn't needed with the bat. We're top of the league by a single point.

Game 8
Greenflies game at one of the nicest grounds in the country. We bowled first and they made 222-6 my figures were 10-0-51-2. We knocked that off for one down thanks to a 200 opening partnership, our openers made 115* and 96.