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LMH Match Report
12
May 2004
The Nuffield cricket team is full of class, but didn't show any
on Wednesday 12 May. As Anthony Fillis said, "At this level, it's not about
winning the toss but about holding catches." With one brilliant exception, we
didn't hold our catches. Given that we failed in one of the game's basics, it
might be appropriate to explain the results in plain language in a way
accessible to those new to the game. You'll forgive the laboured and inelegant
prose, but it reflects our afternoon's play rather accurately.
Lady
Margaret Hall batted first. We were three players short, so we didn't have as
many fielders as usual, so it was obviously easier for their batsmen to get
runs (the points you get if you hit the ball and run to the other side of the
pitch). They got lots of runs: 214. In response, we only managed to get 3
wickets. In other words, we only managed to get 3 of their batsmen out by
hitting their wickets (bowling them) or catching them. So their score was
214/3. When it was our turn to bat, we therefore had to get 215 runs before
they got all our batsmen out (which is usually 10 wickets but in this case was
7 because we were short) and before 40 overs were bowled. An over is 6 balls,
so we basically had to try to get 215 runs in 240 balls. This is a big task. We
started quite well, getting 42 runs before our first batsman went out. However,
in a dramatic collapse, we lost our next 6 wickets for only 38 more runs,
meaning we only managed to get 80 runs in total. This was definitely not
Nuffield's finest day; as you can tell we lost by a big margin.
The end
of the game saw each player reflecting on his performance with disappointment,
which evolved to determination to do better next time. They say class shows in
the long run. Hopefully the long run starts on Sunday, when we play against the
team from Blenheim Palace. The man of the match award goes to Tom Norman. After
a sub-par performance last week, "Stormin' Norman" came back with a vengeance.
Bowling with discipline and pace to achieve tidy figures of 7 overs, 32 runs
conceded and 1 wicket taken. He also made a handy contribution with the bat as
part of the opening partnership of 42 runs.
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