Marress v Windyedge (05/07/08)

Marress’ title hopes were virtually bowled over last week against Rouken Glen and Captain “Kopperburg” Mike Ingram was hoping for a good response from his team this weekend against struggling Glasgow Accies 4th 11.
Rain was going to play a part in Saturday’s game and with that in mind Mike was hoping that his strong bowling attack would be able to remove the opposition’s batsmen in quick time and knock over the runs quickly!!! However 10th game of the season and yet again another “loss toss” and Marress were put into bat.
With opening batsman David Ingram returning to the action this week he was given the responsibility to get the innings under way with a rather hung over Bobby McPhee. As the rain poured Marress got off to a great start slowly knocking 3-4 runs an over and were looking rather comfortable. Marress’s previous best opening partnership was Mike Ingram and Adam Pieroni scoring 143 against Glasgow Accies 3rd 11 in 2005 and this pairing was looking good to achieving this record. At the drinks break Marress were 111 without loss and Bobby was on 50 and chasing his own personal record which everyone will know by now was his marvellous 64* against Hillhead in 1994.
After drinks Marress got off to a dodgy start with bad calling between the wickets, David managed to run two whilst Bobby shouted “NO” to an easy single past the bowler and luckily the fielder threw the ball to the wrong end and David managed to scramble back to his crease. However, Bobby wasn’t so lucky and ran himself out a few balls later on an impressive 51 and more importantly an opening partnership of 112 almost double last weeks efforts for the whole team. Next in was “Old Man” Ingram and he quickly stamped his authority to the game with a top edge for 6 and another two 4’s off one over. David quickly achieved his 50 shortly after, although some dodgy counting did delay it a little, and was then trapped lbw trying to play a silly shot across the line of a straight ball. At 154-2 everything was going well until two quick wickets came for Josh and the reliable Ronnie G, both miss reading deliveries. At 160-4 the game was in the balance until “The Squirrel(or is it Rameesh Raja)” entered the pitch. He saw off some early deliveries and then decided to smash the opening bowler for two 4’s in two deliveries and he was on his way. The score reached 196 and unfortunately Derek was caught going for another big hit on 21, a new personal best for the vice captain who was in great display during his innings. This allowed Cooney to try and prove his acquisitions as a batsman and not just a bowler and with some positive words from Derek, I quote: “Don’t worry everyone else has scored runs just make sure you don’t get a duck or your batting 11 next week!!!” After a few nervous deliveries Cooney cut a decent bowl for four and was off the mark. Mike had decided in the 41st over that he wanted everyone to get a bat so he went after every delivery as if he was going to hit it out the park but the only thing he was hitting was thin air and luckily for him the bowling was just wide off the off stump. The rain came in the 43rd over so both captains agreed to delay the game until the rain had stopped again.
Shortly after play resumed and with Mike realising that he was on 44 he decided to calm his innings down a little and ensure that he hit his second 50 of the season. He managed to do so relatively quickly and then the next delivery he was caught leaving David with a smile on his face that he had yet again out scored his dad. The Doc was next in, and was then next out first ball after some confusion(you need to read the rules, Ronnie G can help you there) on his part that he didn’t realise that his foot must cross the line and not be on it!!! Cooney and Adam both failed to make any impact scoring just 8 runs between them but newly signed player Ketan hit a massive 6 out the ground and some nice shots to rush on to a quick 12 and was then sadly bowled. Ally managed to stay not out again and his run of 11 matches and only being out once, which he claims was the bats fault, continues. The score ended on a remarkable 254 a.o, which Kaptain Kopperburg was extremely happy about at the teatime break.
After an exceptional tea thanks to Mrs Park (Derek’s mum not wife!!!) the Marress bowling attack felt really confident of finishing the opposition off rather quickly, although we had already lost two players to a tea party and one had to go and stand under his girlfriends thumb!!! The Doc and Josh opened the bowling and in the second over Josh had quickly dismissed one of the openers for a duck. After some poor bowling by Chatty, Mike give him a little warning that he might be coming off by warming up and practicing a few deliveries but Chatty wasn’t going to give up that easily by clean bowling their number 3. Josh continued his good start with dismissing their other opener but started to run out of puff. So captain Mike decided that it was to be the Ingram attack and with David being short of form this season with the ball was a huge risk to bowl him so early in the innings. With Mike having a back problem he decided not to bowl his usual 80 mph swinging deliveries and bowl spin??? Or Bobby called it slow pish!!! However, whatever it was it was effective with him bowling 9 overs for just 12 runs and picking up 3 wickets in the process. Son, David, at the other end started off really slowly and bowled some really sub standard stuff and it took him until the third over to get into a rhythm and took 2 wickets for 26 runs in his spell. Ketan bowled a good line and length to frustrate the batsman to allow Marress’s secret weapon D.P to bowl just two balls to finish off the innings. Windyedge only managed to score 91 runs, however it was a really good performance from Marress who are still hoping for promotion this season. There is no game next weekend however our final game before the league splits is on the same day as the Scottish Cup Semi Final so 1st 11 captain Stuart will have a dilemma on wither he wants a higher standard of cricket for his second team or a Cup final for the second year in a row???
The MOM award for this match was a tough decision, but after several days of deliberation it has been awarded to David Ingram for another fine opening batting display and a good bowling return.