There are many decisions that a cricket captain has to make on match day, dilemmas that the captain wrestles with in the build-up; snap decisions that can make or break a game; decisions that can transform a player’s season, or a team’s. These decisions are not normally made by Enstone Captain, Will Speke. Instead he normally mulls over slightly less significant decisions such as; ‘what pants shall I wear?’, ‘should I bat Peterson at 10 or 11?’, ‘squash or water for the drinks break?’, and the most frequently used ‘where the hell can I get 11 men from?’
This Sunday, in a departure from the norm some significant decisions were made which actually impact on the game. Well, one, maybe 2 at a stretch. The big one was the toss. The skipper won the toss, and after winning 3 on the bounce, twice batting first and once bowling first, it wasn’t a clear cut decision. The weather was set fair, if a little windy, so the decision was made, unusually, to bowl first. This proved decisive. Despite some textbook batting from Addy (20) and Kelly (19) the Enstone attack made light work of the OCCSCC batting line up. Watts made a couple of early breakthroughs in his opening 4 over burst, bowling Anderson-Pearce for 3 and having Shoucat caught spectacularly by Gregory for 4. Pete Anthony, opening up the hill in a bid to get rid of his hangover claimed Keighrey for a duck with a contested LBW (it hit the pad first), leaving OCCSCC 3 down for not a lot. Speke joined the fray and bowled a wicketless 8 over spell for 9 runs, while Myatt probed at the other end taking 1 wicket for 5 runs from 5 overs, including the vital wicket of Addy. A good decision looked to have been made. Following Speke’s economical but benign spell, the second significant decision was made in who to bowl next. The options were wide ranging, with Stewart loosening up like Dave Gahan in a Soho nightclub, Kev Anthony ruffling his feathers at the prospect of not being given a bowl, and everybody else avoiding eye contact from the skipper in the hope of not being asked to turn their arm over. In the end the skipper went for Kev Anthony, and a wise decision this proved to be. With the scoring rate at a snail’s pace and the wind blowing hard, the batsmen played into Budgie’s feathers. In a sensational spell of bowling Kev took 4 for 24 from 7 overs. Some solid catching from Watts, Speke, Gregory and the bowler himself accounting for Kelly, Parish, Ahmadazi and Nalir. Wilson (4-0-6-1) and Pete Anthony (8-0-16-2) picked up the remaining wickets, meaning that with 3 overs to spare OCCSCC were bowled out for an under par 79. After a lovely tea from Lesley Anthony, Enstone strode out to bat confident of hitting their target and enjoying a windy afternoon at the wicket. Speke and Burge moved things along nicely, waiting for the bad ball and capitalising on some inconsistent bowling. Speke eventually fell for 23 trying to play an ambitious drive, caught at slip. Forder replaced him and hit a strong and stable 12. Smith (2 not out) replaced Forder at the wicket and ably supported Burge (29 not out) in seeing Enstone home inside 14 overs. This allowed the Enstone team a rare early finish and some extra time in the bar. Reflections were made on the quality of the fielding and bowling, and how the skipper didn’t have any significant decisions in the win. This is as we always bowl first and Budgie was a dead cert to bowl as he has been in good form all season. Still, another successful Sunday for Enstone, played in a friendly way with amiable opposition.
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