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Well...'thriller' might be over-egging it a bit, but a good, competitive 16-over match was lost to Coquet with 4 balls to spare at a glorious sun-baked Blue Flames on Thursday evening.
Missing the big-guns of Miller, Scott and Halford, Stand-in skipper Johns lost the toss and was asked to bat on a sun-baked strip that looked full of runs. Unfortunately looks can be deceiving where the civil service batting order is concerned and the ten man opposition produced a miserly opening spell with Angus bowling straight through going for only 11 and Chapman bowling his first 2 for only 4 runs before bringing Mclelland into the attack. Ward was first to go, stumped (or was it run out?) off Angus for 3 in the first over, followed shortly after by Luke for 2, caught somewhere in around the square, off the same bowler.
Ferguson provided the cement and bricks from the other end and began to slowly hit his straps. De Jager was promoted to number 4 to give the stalled innings some impetus, but holed out to mid-off for a duck. Unfortunately, some fortification was required, despite the slow scoring rate, so Johns was next in at 20-3 in the 6th over. The scoring rate slowed even further, despite the best efforts of both batsmen to get on with it. Once Angus had been seen off, 6-aside mode was the order of the day.
Fergy suddenly sparked into life in the 10th over hitting three successive fours but at the end of it we were still only 45-3. The opposition brought on the junior member of their attack, Ward to bowl who was managing to get the ball to cut back quite a long way and Johns was struggling to lay bat on ball. Fergy finally fell to the youngster miscuing a full toss to midwicket for a vital 33. At least another 50 were going to be required to make a game of it, but with wickets in hand and some big hitters to come I was confident of getting to at least 100.
Resident football pundit Townsend came and went for a quick 4 and Jossy then strode to the crease and smashed a quick fire 13 before sacrificing his wicket, run out, with Johns finally starting to find the middle of his bat. Newcomer Trevor then acquited himself very well in the remaining couple of overs, playing some nice looking shots and running well between the wickets. Johns even managed a couple of successive 4's to finish unbeaten on 36 and take the score onto 102-6. Below par, but defendable.
The 'new' ball was chucked to Jossy who bowled a really tight spell (4-1-11-1). Joe took the first wicket (bowled) in the second over before Todd started to get after him and runs began to flow. Jossy maintained the pressure at the other end and soon removed the number three, rattling the timbers. The opposition skipper, Chapman was next to the crease and though unorthodox began to take the game away from the Civils with some lusty hitting through the leg side.
A change of bowling did for him with Laingers removing him for 20 - odd. Laingers kept the pressure on with some tight, pacy bowling. Neil tested out his dodgy back for an over before Johns turned to De Jager who kept it tight but couldn't provide the breakthrough. The key was getting the opener Todd who continued to bat sensibly knowing if he was there at the end victory was assured. A run out provide the final breakthrough and 18 was required off the last two. Clever running and the odd bad ball meant the opposition won the game with half an over to spare with Todd unbeaten on 45.
A good effort with a weakend batting line up and an enjoyable game.
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