To play or not to play...

To play or not to play.. that was the question

We arrived at Ellon under grey skies and drizzling rain, it looked like it was set in for the day.

Do we start in the rain? A few of the lads were unsure, especially those that had been up all night studying... but the overriding decision was “we are all here, we may as well play”.

Besides “Tis Better to have played and lost than to never played at all”

Mannofield lost the toss and not surprisingly were asked to bat first on the greenest of green wickets.
The pitch was surprisingly hard but very greasy given the constant drizzle, and with the ball aquaplaning off the surface the ball came onto the bat a little quicker than it should.

Mannofield had yet another opening pair, the 6th different pairing in 6 games played.
This time it was Natesh who opened with the skipper. The latter was first to go top edging a short ball from Greenfield. Lewis soon followed falling to the same bowler.

Greenfield was making hay in the rain on the green pitch (there’s a quote in there somewhere!)

With Natesh going next it meant that Indy and Horney were at the crease together. After a steady start the pair picked up the tempo nicely and all of a sudden the Ellon team didn’t look so happy to be out in the rain.

The pair were batting beautifully and had added 113 runs in just 12 over’s when Indy mistimed to mid wicket for a valuable 43, Stuart (81) continued to hammer the ball to all areas until he creamed one straight back to the bowler who took a very smart catch.

The remaining 5 wickets all clean bowled added a further 30 runs, the innings finished on 199 and rather disappointingly in the 38th over..

In reply Ellon decided that attack was the best way to get the job done. There task was helped somewhat with a very eventful first over that had a Harmisonesk wide, no ball, byes, a six and a 5 run penalty when the ball nailed the redundant helmet!

It was a difficult task for any of the seam bowlers to keep their footing, the constant rain had made the ground soaking wet and gave the bowlers no confidence to bowl full pelt.

The breakthrough came with the first ball of spin, Horney (2 for 50) finding the outside edge to first slip. 3 balls later the same combination made it 2 down.

Duncan came on to bowl and proved my point about the seam bowlers when he went down like the proverbial lead balloon but somehow had enough momentum to roll for a good couple of yards like a Spanish footballer!
To add insult to injury he then dropped (a reasonably tough) caught and bowled chance that would have got rid of their captain who top scored with 91 not out.

Charit (1 for 36) did manage to take another wicket again caught at first slip before Ellon reached their target in the 27th over.

It was yet again a tough day for the 3rd team, Indy and Horney’s partnership was the highlight of the day, Lewis bowled well considering the conditions.

It was a tough day in the field with players constantly slipping and struggling to stop the ball.
However to win games we must find a way of keeping the opponents run rate to below 5.
The last 4 games have seen us concede run rates of 7.4, 12.7, 7.75 and 5.42.

We will try again next week against Cults..