Meagle beaten as winning streak continues

After a fairly relaxed warm-up (olds beat youngs 3-2), skip did his usual trick of losing the toss and being put into bat.

Meagle’s opening bowlers put the ball in good areas at a healthy pace, giving very few freebies to our openers Kenny Reid and Shayanthan Nanthakumaran.
Shay was forced to curb his natural aggression and had to be content with pinching occasional singles and doubles, confident in the knowledge that runs would come easier once the new ball had been taken care of.

Shay and Kenny’s patience paid off as the two talented opening batsmen saw off their opening bowling counterparts with their wickets intact. Unfortunately, after all his hard work, Shay’s aforementioned fierce batting nature got the better of him and he was caught on the cow boundary going for a massive swipe across the line (some degree of artistic license, in reality he threw it away by popping it to cover or something along those incredibly dull lines).

Next in was Callum Martin, hoping that that the running associated with a big score would allow him to make some progress toward his new fitness target (i.e. stop being fat). Regrettably, but understandably, his thoughts were solely focussed on his canine companion who has been feeling somewhat poorly of late. He fell without troubling the scorers.

William Anderson was due in at four with a point to prove to the powers-that-be (i.e. me) whom had been batting him far too low down the order this season. Bash gently stroked his way to 41 in the beautifully fluent manner that has come to define all of his innings. His 41 included a number of cover drives which he caressed to the boundary with such a degree of sensuality that several onlookers were required to have a cold shower and brief lie-down before returning to watch the game.

W. Anderson was eventually stumped, stampeding down the wicket to a long hop. This brought to the crease 70’s cult icon, hydraulic pump tycoon and phil-antropist P.Wood. Phil Wood skipped out to the middle in his usual jubilant manner and went on to club his way to 33 (including a huge six into the car park) in his customary uncomplicated style that seems to match his Neanderthal-like appearance.

Andy Russel replaced Phil at the crease and scored a very tidy 11 before holing out to cow trying to up the tempo. He was replaced by the ‘most hated captain in club history’ (Nanthakamuran, pers. Comm. 2013) Rene v. O. who scored a few lucky runs. The inning eventually
ended on a very respectable 235. Kenny Reid top-scored with a very fine 87, before being bowled in the final over, and was clearly the backbone of the innings.

In reply Meagle started off with a flyer, helped by some mediocre fielding and a generous portion of extras. Openers Will and Adrian Neill looked threatening and were unlucky not to get the breakthrough. Saturday’s golden boy (see fixture vs Strathmore) David Gamblen came on and got the all-important first wicket with the score on 60-odd. Meagle were well on top of the rate at this point and were threatening to take the game away from the Mannomen.

Tom Diamond and Phil Wood were brought on to steady the ship. Tom bowled a miserly line and length, much to the increasing frustration of the Meagle top order. As the required rate began to climb so did the impatience of the batsmen who eventually started taking
greater risks. Tom’s nagging seamers eventually proved to be too much as he was able to send three batsmen back to the pavilion, all of whom had skied to manno-fielders.

Phil bowled ok, took three wickets.

Adrian, Callum and Pie were eventually brought on to finish off the tail and did so very efficiently, allowing us to win by a comfortable margin, wiping away those frowns present early on in the Meagle innings.

MOTM’s were:
1. Kenny Reid whose innings was perfectly timed and allowed us to build towards a very competitive total.
2. Tom with a superb match-altering spell of change-bowling
3. Phil, I guess

Rene