Århus vs. Kerteminde

By mutual agreement, Århus batted first on a soggy pitch and a wet, heavy outfield. It looked to be the right decision, since the sun was coming out and there was a chance of afternoon showers – though not in the club house. Capt. Crawford presiding.

Prepared as we were, for some difficult batting, through uneven bounce, no bounce and then some, added to swing, cut and no movement, we surely had hoped to be better placed than 5/55 after 19 overs. It has to be said, that we were unprepared for some poor umpiring dismissals (3) that included two LBWs (Alex and Jeff) and a ‘no contact’ caught behind (Jens). Towards the end, the captain came on (36, top score)) and played a decent knock well-supported by Rajesh (~17), who on this occasion played off-spin well by not putting too much bottom-hand on the bat, thus avoiding chipping the slower ball in the air. We wound up at 106 all out after about 36 overs. Tough going….but we were well aware that the same conditions would prevail for Kerteminde.

The second innings began with the usual shemozzle: Bowlers unable to find a decent grip in the run-up. When will we see bowlers with footwear for the occasion? If I may suggest; that we use the winter break to acquire (beg/borrow/steal) cricket boots with soft spikes (not rubber, which is prone to get VERY slippery when wet) for all who need them. They can be procured for as little as kr. 200-250 on many websites. Anyhow, back to the story… Kerteminde lost two early wickets and the game was definitely on! The pitch did wonderful things for us now, with a wonderful mix of ‘scuttlers’, cutters and top edges resulting in lbw’s, catches and bowled out dismissals that saw them at 7/70 for drinks. Remarkably, they had only 4 top order batsmen with them – and they were back in the pavilion. The fifth batsman out was also of note: The over before his dismissal, he chipped a handsome catch to square leg, only to find no one placed there. On completing his run he was decidedly angry with himself. I chipped in, offering: “These things happen..” The next over he lofted an off-drive straight to cover and was caught. Still at the crease, he then went absolutely beserk, lifted his bat over his head, slammed it down into the ground next to the pitch as hard as he could – where it was stuck in the mud with a loud thud! And then proceeded to verbally abuse himself for being such-and such…! Alex and I at slip looked at each other and said ‘Faaark..!’ and grinned. GAME ON!

Unfortunately, things did not quite eventuate from then on. The tail didn’t show much, but we failed to dismiss them, though we dropped a couple and missed a run out. Still, 35 runs from 18 overs with 3 wickets in hand, always looks gettable. Regrettably, it was. Mani, Samanthe, Peter C. and Ollie all bowled reasonably well. It was not their doing, rather it was a top order failure combined with poor umpiring. Fortunately, there’s always next year… WE’LL BE BACK!