Signs of Batting and Bowling Improvements Despite Being Beaten By Bardsey

Bardsey win by four wickets as they finish 7 runs ahead of DLS at 38.5 overs

Put into bat by the visitors (Bardsey), New Rover began steadily as they often do, with both Michael Richmond and Fahim Khan playing sensible cricket, hitting the loose deliveries and finding singles when absolutely necessary. Khan did get caught behind at the end of the tenth over off the bowling of Keon Williams, and the second wicket fell three overs later at 38 runs. Nevertheless, Michael Richmond looked to have got a grasp of the slightly tricky, low-bouncing wicket, and the home team obviously had lots of batting left with 8 wickets in hand.

Harry Dodgson bowling for Bardsey

As far as the twenty-third over, two overs before drinks, no more wickets had been lost by the home team, who thanks to Michael Richmond's continued presence at the crease were now at 79 runs. Again, this was not a huge score but the number of wickets was looking positive. Unfortunately, the couple of overs before and after drinks were woeful as Bardsey’s Harry Dodgson and Sameer Manjrekar took crucial wickets. 

After bowling Matthew De Araujo in the twenty-fourth over, Dodgson did exactly the same to Michael Richmond (36 runs off nearly 90 balls) in the twenty-sixth over. In fact, Dodgson bowled three consecutive wicket-taking overs, forcing a catch in the twenty-eighth over too. To make things even worse, in the twelfth over, Sameer Manjrekar was able to take the wickets of last week’s stand out batsman for New Rover, Shaurya Koya (caught by Waqas Rasheed).

Despite the collapse around drinks, a convincing partnership of over 80 runs was constructed by Lewis Kellett and Adil Mehmood. So, while neither were able to reach a half-century which they deserved, both were evidently up to the task of taking their team out of potential peril. When Kellett was eventually bowled by Harwood Williams with just over six overs left, New Rover found themselves at over 175 runs with 3 wickets left. 

Lewis Kellett batting for New Rover

Although not the highest score you will ever see, New Rover were able to push on to 219 runs by the end of the innings. This was only 11 runs more than last week against Adel, but was far more impressive considering the collapse at drinks! Moreover, on this occasion they still had one wicket left after the fiftieth over.

Bardsey started their innings much faster than New Rover, with Nadeem Bedford and Jonathan Wilson going for the boundaries from the off. Yet, for a while, New Rover managed to keep a reasonable grip of things with the ball, in a manner which they were unable to last week at Adel. Although a large number of extras were again conceded by New Rover in the end these did not play a huge role until about ten overs after drinks, when the match turned pear-shaped for everyone. 

At drinks, Bardsey had been kept to under 100 runs and were four wickets down. Consistent bowling from Carlo Zanella and Mohammad Khan in particular by this point was starting to restrict the scoring rate. Working with the pitch which continued to offer little bounce, these bowlers took two wickets a piece and made things look far closer than last week. In reality, if the Bardsey batsmen had continued to fall at the same rate and for a similar number of runs after drinks, New Rover may have had a chance of winning this match. 

The match remained in the balance as far as the thirtieth over, at which point Bardsey were six wickets down and still in need of more than 90 runs to win. From this point onwards however, batsman number four in the Bardsey order, Andrew Bowes powered on to 52 with some big hitting. Accompanied by Harwood Williams, who came to join him from eight in the order and added a valuable 28 runs, this innings proved decisive. 

As already indicated, the weather had its say with about 15 overs left, and after a short break in play, the team returned with DLS in mind. Having lost six wickets, the visitors were a little off the par score initially, but with Bowes and Williams playing confidently it did not take long for them to make up the twenty-to-thirty runs they needed. And once they were ahead by the end of the thirty-ninth over it was clear New Rover had lost their grip on the match. Before the end of the next over everyone was off the pitch and the inevitable was accepted early by the home team.

With it effectively being game on until eighty overs into the match, New Rover should not be too disheartened with their overall performance. Hopefully they won’t be put off by the sudden end, exaggerated by one strong batsmen and weather conditions they couldn’t do too much about.

This article can also be found at: New Rover CC