League Cup (20 over): WFCC vs Henleaze Old Boys CC, Match Report & Scorecard

Henleaze Old Boys CC (130/5) beat Western Flyers (127/6) by 5 wickets.

Match Report -

Conventional wisdom dictates that batting first in evening games at the prestigious BAWA ground is a no-brainer.  The light fades, the pub calls, and on this particular occasion the famous Henleaze dinner awaits.  With that in mind and Shehan answering all his critics by turning up on time and winning the toss, the Flyers thought that the scene was set for a victory against a historically solid Henleaze side despite being a man down due to late drop outs.

Sadly, on this particular occasion batting first didn’t provide much of an advantage on a deceptively cold day with a cruel crosswind playing into the hands of the consistently accurate bowling  attack of Henleaze.  The first to suffer the fate of many to follow was Tim who seemed intent on having a go at challenging for the record of the shortest innings in Flyers’ history made last week.  The jury is still out as to whether the first legal ball of an innings is deemed a diamond duck or not but either way Tim was sent quacking on the 2^nd ball of the innings after a decent catch behind which judging from the reactions of the opposition, was the keeper’s first catch ever.  Nathan was already looking nervous on the sidelines at the prospect of having to bat due to the early setback but was pushed over the edge when Tim’s bat came flying to the sideline in rage.

Saveen was sent in to steady the ship and formed a decent partnership with the ever consistent Shehan.  The runs weren’t particularly flowing however with Henleaze’s 2^nd bowler finishing conceding only 9 runs from his 4 overs with the Flyer’s reaching 50 runs after 10 overs which included 2 successive maidens which is surely a first in 20/20 cricket.  With wickets to spare, flair players to come and the decent bowling on display this wasn’t seen to be too far behind the curve but the rate needed to be upped to reach Paul’s voice of experience prediction of 140 being a winning score.  When Saveen got caught for 19 off a decent catch Ian was sent in to unleash the fireworks but on this occasion those fireworks were more sparklers than rockets as he never looked too settled scoring most his runs of his now well worn edge of bat.  Rumours of the wind picking up during his innings are unconfirmed.  The real star of the show in the Flyers batting lineup was a supremely classy display from Yameen (32) who was dominant in taking on the bowlers with his textbook technique using the pace of the bowlers expertly to get the runs ticking over.  When supported by a cameo by Imran late on with a  flurry of fours the Flyers looked like amassing a total which was defensible.  The runs were spread throughout the batting line up which was pleasing to see with the flyers setting a target of 128.

Flyers have a proud history of Sri Lankan talent stepping into the breach when the flakey Flyers are short and most were pleased that TJ and Saveen made themselves available for the game.  The notable exceptions being the Henleaze openers who had no answer for TJ’s pace and Saveen’s tight bowling which gave nothing away with the pair finishing conceding just 25 runs between their 8 overs spread throughout the innings which was remarkable.  Suddenly, the game was very much on with Henleaze only managing to equal the 50 achieved after 10 overs.  The Flyer’s were buzzing with records tumbling all over the place; an entire innings without a notable misfield – check.  No dropped catches – check. A catch on the boundary by an injured Owen who could barely walk – check.  Tim taking a catch behind from an edge before declaring that his approach to keeping is to “just hope that it lands in the gloves” – check. Owen getting someone’s number whilst fielding on the boundary – this was going to be a day to write home about.

Alas, it wasn’t to be.  The wind settled late on and started gusting which upset the line and consistency of the bowling with Imran who had earlier got the wicket of the danger man uncharacteristically being taken to the cleaners down the leg side for 18 in an over.  With 3 overs to go 29 runs were still required for the win but on a day where the fielding had been so good, a few wides and byes were creeping into the game which resulted in 4 being required off the last.  On the 2^nd ball of the final over the ball was sent emphatically over the bowlers head and over the rope to take Henleaze to a 5 wicket win with 4 balls to spare.

For the Flyer’s though, a 2^nd disappointing loss in less than a week but with a lot of positives to take forward to the next game.  

Match Report by Ian Randles

Scorecard -

WFCC Innings (20 overs maximum)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
Tim Fewster Shehan Somaratna* Saveen Ian Randles Yameen Hussain Imran Ali Thiyanan Jeganathan Paul Remfry Simon Roberts Nathan Sanders† Owen Gebler Extras Total	c Fillingham b Anderson b Price c Player b Thomas b Price Run Out (Fillingham) b Barrett Not Out DNB DNB DNB DNB (w19, b1, lb1) (6 wickets, 20 overs)	0 27 19 15 32 12 1 - - - - 21 127		- 6 4 2 7 3 - - - - -	- - - - - - - - - - -

HOB CC Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
Anderson Singh Barrett Thomas Price	4 4 4 4 4	0 3 0 1 1	28 9 33 27 24	1 0 1 1 2	7.00 2.25 8.25 6.75 6.00

HOB CC Innings (20 overs maximum)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
Barry Taylor Walker Singh Price Thomas* Parsons Anderson A Fillingham† Barrett Norman Extras Total	lbw Yameen c Owen b Yameen b Shehan c Tim b Imran b Thiyanan Not Out Not Out DNB DNB DNB DNB (w6, b18, lb2) (5 wickets, 19.2 overs)	2 22 11 24 22 21 0 - - - - 26 130		- 4 - 4 - 1 - - - - -	- - - - 2 1 - - - - -

WFCC Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
Saveen Thiyanan Jeganathan Yameen Hussain Shehan Somaratna Imran Ali	4 4 4 4 3.2	0 2 0 1 0	14 11 29 20 38	0 1 2 1 1	3.50 2.75 7.25 5.00 11.88

Match Detail -
Toss: WFCC won the toss and elected to bat first

M.O.M - Yameen Hussain

Playcricket scorecard is available here.