Chaos here,

Today the lads travelled to my favourite away ground in the league. They have put a lot of work off the field to improve the clubhouse and changing room facilities, credit to their volunteers and committee it’s a great place to play as an away player. We went into the game full of confidence from the day before bowling Skelmanthorpe out for 54, but we knew Thongsbridge would provide a big test for us as they always do.

The first noticeable factor of the day was that on arrival it became apparent we were playing to a 32 yard boundary towards the river. Albeit fine by me, a short boundary bandit, it was ridiculous for a first team to be playing so close to the edge. An interesting decision from the Thongsbridge groundsman, I can only suggest that he must have forgot the DBS were in town..

For the first time this season I lost the toss and they elected to bat, this provided us with a good test of our abilities to chase totals down, historically something we struggle with. Also a first for the season, our opening bowlers Rudgey and M1 didn’t make an early breakthrough, the pitch looked very flat and wasn’t offering much at all. Siraj entered the fold and eventually removed their opening batsman caught behind to leave the score 63-1. Thongsbridge have two overseas players at 3 and 4 who turned out to be class players in fairness who will do some damage for them this season. Bowling on there was hard work and it was important we chopped and changed to find the right combinations to make breakthroughs. At 149-1 Chaos took an unbelievable caught and bowled that made M1 and Rudgey’s yesterday look like dolly’s. The two overseas players then put on 99 runs quickly, we had to show resolve and togetherness in the field. In previous seasons our heads would have gone down with people sulking, however, this year we are an altogether different animal. M1 and Nads had the impossible task of bowling at the end, with a tiny boundary and they were set up with plenty of wickets in-hand to go ballistic. They both bowled brilliantly in difficult circumstances, keeping them down to 320-8 which felt like 30/40 runs short to me at half-time. M1 finished with impressive figures of 4/86 and Nads 2/73, taking the big wicket of their South African number 4 who scored 89 (48). A special mention to Henry Crowhurst (Chenners) who took 4 victims, including 2 smart stumpings and 2 catches up to the stumps.

I was interested to get into the dressing room at half time and see what the mood was like and what people’s attitudes were towards chasing 320. M1 set the tone immediately saying “thats 50 runs short, I can’t wait to knock these off”, the demeanour in the dressing appeared excited to get into the 2nd innings which was great to hear.

Our two openers M1 and Shoki started strongly and we were up with the run rate consistently. Both looked at ease and were finding boundaries regularly, racing to 100-0 off just 13 overs. Shoki then mistimed a long-hop straight to square leg and departed for 57 (45) much to my annoyance because it makes the game an hour longer when he’s out. M1 went about his business as though nothing had changed, reaching his half century, regularly hitting his slog sweeps and finding the gap between the 3 men out. JR departed on 21 before he managed to get into his stride, hitting a leading edge off the spinner. He was quickly followed by overseas Mogs, who was unluckily caught in two minds with a shin high full toss straight to mid-on.

This brought the in-form man Siraj to the crease, the next 90 mins were a pleasure to watch. M1 went to his century off 100 balls, with a nice cut shot into the offside, a well-deserved milestone from a man who’s looked solid since his arrival at the club. At this point we were 216/3 off 35 overs, which meant we needed 105 from 90 balls with 7 wickets spare. Both Moorlands men smelt blood and began to shift into 3rd and 4th gear, Sirj went to his half century off 48 balls with M1 on 138 from 123 balls. Their part time off spinners felt the brunt of it, anything short or over pitched was sent into the river or into the tennis courts. Their seamers didn’t fair much better, M1 slog sweeping at will and Siraj hitting powerfully down the ground.

Before we reached our target in just 45.5 overs, another milestone was met with M1 bringing up a mammoth 150 in just 127 deliveries. All who witnessed it at the ground and the members watching back at HQ in the club on livestream appreciated what they had just seen. To knock a total off on the scale of 320, someone has to get a big score and M1 did just that, a man who clearly knows his game and has the know-how to go about taking a score down. Siraj finished on a faultless 73 (64), looking every bit a class player and highlighting just how vitally important he is to the team.

A fantastic performance all-round, most satisfying for me was the reaction at half-time, heads didn’t drop and people weren’t falling out. There was genuine positivity and excitement at the opportunity to knock such a big score off. In league cricket you don’t see many teams getting scores like that, but in fairness we did it comfortably without ever needing to step fully on the gas. We ended the day top of the league on 22 points, with another big test next weekend to look forward to. I’ll hopefully see you all down at HQ on Saturday to support the lads as we look to maintain our unbeaten start to the season.

Til next time,

It’s been Chaos