Match Report

With a heat wave rolling in, the mighty Lavant were on the road AGAIN, this time visiting the very picturesque location of Lynchmere which looked wonderful on a sun soaked and beautiful summer day.

With the Lavant team assembling the Lavant skipper hunted down his opposite number looking to get stuck into the tossing procedure after regaining his tossing form.

As seems to be a recurring theme a location of a coin was required by the opposition and many moths were released from wallets as some currency were searched for (funny enough no one asked Dave)..

With a coin found the toss (of course) was won by the Lavant skipper and (with the game format being a timed game) elected to bowl first to allow for the best options to bat for a win or a draw.

With the Lavant team shocked at the choice, many had to remove their batting pads and put on their bowling whites and head out to the field.

Game on!

First up was ‘Jean Claude Van Tran’ who has been in stellar form this season but the club’s premiere strike bowler found it tough going with anything slightly loose punished. Tam has been high class this year and can be forgiven for a day when it wasn’t quite clicking for him and even after managing a maiden was taken out of the attack finishing 0 – 26 from his 4 overs.

At the other end was James A for his first appearance for Lavant this season after picking up an elbow injury at the start of the season. Slightly shocked with being asked to bowl first the Lavant skipper was confident in his ability (and wanted to get him into the game early), James stepped up for his team. Bowling straight he found a breakthrough in his first over cleaning up the Lynchmere opening bat for a duck! After this James grew in confidence and really got into his groove and kept things nice and tidy for 4 overs and didn’t give the Lynchmere batters much to score off. He understandably started to fade a little and finished his 6 over spell 1 for 25. Well bowled James.

At the other end Dave ’The Shoes’ Burford entered the attack with the Lavant skipper hoping he could stop the rapid flow of runs that were coming from one end but unfortunately the onslaught continued with Dave’s first over going for 17! With the Lavant skipper weighing up the option of taking him out of the attack he decided to keep the experienced man on in the hope he could regain control and reign in the scoring. 

Thankfully the decision paid off with the next over only going for 4 and the following over (with the score having motored to 72 from 12 overs) delivering 2 wickets! First removing the very destructive #3 who clipped the ball high in the air for a terrific catch from Fraser and then the following delivery similarly the ball went up and was held on by the safe hands of ‘Super’ Steve Brooker. With the next over starting on a hat trick ball (which ended as a dot) Dave continued to hold things up but faded in the last couple of overs and was taken out of the attack finishing with 2 for 37 from his 6 overs.

Replacing James was Will ‘T-Rex’ and after trying (it felt like) a 100 shirts in the changing room (as he was waiting for his new custom Lavant shirt with little arm sleeves to arrive in the post) seemed rev’ed up because he was getting down the ball with some serious pace off what seemed a couple of steps! In his 3rd over he struck with a brilliant delivery that clean up the #6 and then forced a false shot from the #5 which he smartly took as a great caught and bowled! 

As seemed to be a theme of the day Will bowled great but also faded in his last two overs (shipping runs) and came out of the attack finishing with 2 – 30 off his 6 over spell. 

(I was starting to think maybe the Lavant bowlers should only bowl 5 overs)!! It’s almost like the team weren’t used to fielding first….

Replacing Dave was Peter ‘The Prof’ who was looking to continue his good form from the week before but found it a little harder going this week. Peter bowled in good areas but just couldn’t manage to cut out the loose ball that was being hit away for 4. Peter stuck with it and bowled some terrific balls and it started to look like it was going to be one of those days until the 5th over when he struck first picking up the crucial wicket of the Lynchmere #1 (smartly caught in the deep by Justin) and then breaking through the defences of the #9 clean bowling him. Peter finished his 5 over spell 2 – 26.

Replacing Will T was Justin who also struck in his first over managing to hurry the Lynchmere #7 and the ball went up and was taken by Tam. Bringing some much needed control to the bowling, Justin was able to keep things tight and stop the flow of runs with Lynchmere looking to get a big total on the board. Justin finished his 5 over spell with 1 – 15.

With the Lynchmere batting reeling the Lavant skipper called upon Mark ‘Mr Chairman’ S to try and polish off the lower order and he did exactly that! First over trapping the #10 (plumb in front) LBW and in his third over clean bowling the #8! 

After a block buster start from Lynchmere and score racing to 89 for 2 in the 16th over it felt like the writing was on the wall for a massive run chase but the team hung in there and did the work in the field and when the break through came jumped on the chance to press home the advantage and ended up bowling Lynchmere out for 167 with 12 minutes of the allotted time to spare. It was some turn around! 

With the Lavant skipper needing time to recover from 34 overs keeping wicket in the heat and marshalling the troops, he stood aside and asked Tam to once again take his place with the clear plan of looking to get ahead of the run rate and break the back of the run chase for the rest of the batting order.

What came was brutal. Tam, showing he clearly understood the role given to him by the skipper, started to climb into anything that came in his arch, smacking the ball hard to the boundary line. Sounding like a clap of thunder each time suddenly the scoreboard was motoring.

At the other end Justin (continuing his amazing run of form) stuck to his clear process that has been working all season. Have a close look at the bowling, feel out the pitch and conditions, get himself in and then go big! The timing was on point with the ball exploding off his bat which seemed to require the Lynchmere fielders having to take evasive action from the ball!

It was amazing viewing from the sidelines so see the two Lavant batters go about their work. It seemed like whatever the Lynchmere bowlers tried Tam and Justin had an answer and never looked like they were ever getting out….

…..well….

Apart from the fact they seem to be desperate to run each other out!! (on 5 occasions I counted)! 

Perhaps they were both seeing it so well there was a desperation to get back on strike and face more balls? Maybe they both just liked to have a run around? Maybe they just wanted to meet more in the middle for a cuddle? Who knows. 

Either way the onslaught continued and even Tam (after hitting the ball so hard the end of his bat came off) Justin was able to go through the gears and register ANOTHER 50 of the season.

Equally (after bringing out the spare bat) Tam was also able to register his first 50 of the season too (great work Tambo).

Just after raising his bat  (and looking to see the team home) the only blemish of the run chase was Tam being bowled out for 50. With 142 on the board next out was Fraser who looked class from ball one.

Fraser didn’t take long to get going and after some classical shots started to find the boundaries too!

With no respite for the Lynchmere bowlers and fielders the scoreboard kept ratting along at pace and with 10 overs to spare the total was achieved in convincing fashion. Lavant finished with 171 for 1.

Justin carried his bat for a brilliant 84 and Fraser a classy 17 not out steering Lavant home for the win. It was a simply imperious run chase. Well done Justin, Tam and Fraser.

Rumour is we have a home game next week so on to the next!!

Man of the match 

This week goes to Justin for coming on and steadying the ship with his bowling when things were looking tough in the field and then executing a clinical run chase. 

Champagne moment

Goes to Tam for hitting a ball so hard his bat exploded!!