More Twenty20 woe

After paying an exorbitant transfer fee to get back the talents of Pete Snape MSM from the clutches of Henry's Marauders, the Cavaliers headed into last night's Twenty20 match against Rushale with renewed hope. Having won the toss and agreeing to play an 1818 match due to the late start time, I decided to avoid the potential psychological scarring another batting collapse could cause so put Rushale into bat. Fielding in a glorious sunny evening on a firmed up Cottam Hall pitch was quite pleasant. Only 4 wickets fell, Snape taking 3 on his 2007 season Twenty20 debut but despite the occasional 6 and some aggressive strokes, I felt their total of 107 was par for the course and achievable for our beefed up batting order, especially with Amos and Stephen Taylor back in the middle and good batting down to 8.

How wrong I was, our first over was as eventful as ever with Moyesie going for a duck. Cartwright soon followed and Amos run out. Not good. With a duel Taylor batting line up in the middle, the call for calm was sent out (not a long shout from the 20 yard boundary!) and the brothers played themselves in and started to play their strokes. With a run rate just over 5 per over required it wasn't panic stations yet. However a wild swipe from Stephen to a low bouncing ball ended his time at the crease and sent in captain Bamford.

With my confidence low after 3 below par innings things weren't looking good. Still the pitch was hard and the bowling fierce, always a fun combination so I took the aggressive option, opened the stance and set to the task. A few bashes came from the bat bringing some welcome boundaries. Near death on one occasion to the fielder at silly mid-on... The bowlers response was a few short ones into the chin, nice. I was feeling good and hopefully entertaining the crowds, 3 families viewing, almost capacity at Cottam! However with the run rate rising more aggression was called for. Scott's confident little innings came to a close and the lower order didn't last too long and for all intents and purposes the game was over. This brought Rob into bat and the classic Gregson family technique was soon evident to see with some classy forward defensives. I managed to keep bashing and with my 25 retirement approaching I foolishly got Rob run out taking a quick single to their best fielder. However all due credit to the opposition allowing Rob to continue batting with us requiring 40 off the last couple of overs, certainly well received. So the last few overs provided a few runs off a misture of spin and uber-pace, Snape was left with his pad (singular) on and I walked down the pitch West Indies style to swipe the last ball for four to end on 28* but with another match defeat.

The good thing about the Twenty20 League is that with 10 matches and four teams qualifying, it is far from over and if we can keep going and find our form, we can surely challenge to get into the finals. (He says hopefully, P.M.A!)