Cardiff Cavaliers Cricket Club

Match Report

South Wales Echo, Thursday 20 May 2010

Echo 105/6 (20 ovs, Davis 2/8, McVeigh 1/3, Pritpal 1/4). Cav 106/6 (18.4 ovs, D Parsons 42, Fraser 22, Ward 16). Won by 4 wickets

Scorecard

This warm sunny evening at Blackweir saw South Wales Echo take on the Cavaliers, who were unbeaten in the league and going for a hat trick of back to back wins. The Echo won the toss and elected to bat.

Opening the bowling for the Cavaliers was Graveson and Dawkins. Both managed to keep the Echo’s opening batsmen of Rogers and Rees quiet but neither was able to get the breakthrough to reward their fine opening spells. Graveson completed his spell of 2 overs conceding just 2 runs and was unfortunate not to take a wicket with some fine bowling. Dawkins who managed to complete 3 overs ended his spell conceding 8 runs for 0 wickets.

Davis came on to replace Graveson with immediate effect by tempting the batsman into lofting one up for Ward to safely hold on to his catch for the first wicket of the game. Having taken the wicket of Rogers, Davis quickly followed that by dismissing Rhys. Like his previous partner he tried to hit Davis out of the ground only for Pritpal to safely assist Davis with a fine catch. Davis ending his spell with 2 for 8 off 2 [Ed: rarely can the ball have seen so much of the stratosphere, leading those among the Echo team with long enough memories to recall the damage inflicted on their infrastructure by a not dissimilar aerial bombardment some 60 or more years ago ...]

Not wanting to miss out on the action Pritpal took the ball and assisted Davis from the other end with some fantastic bowling. Pritpal’s first over saw him prevent the Echo from scoring. His second over was even more successful when he managed to hold on to a thunderbolt of a shot hit straight back at him by Qyaam. Pritpal ended a splendid spell of 2 overs taking 1 wicket for 4 runs with one maiden.

Pritchard was brought on and managed to get some good deliveries in off of his 3 overs. Pritchard was unfortunate to come up against the Echo’s top scorer Murrell (29no) who took on the Echo’s cause and began to swing the bat to push the score on. This however did not deter Pritchard who managed to run Pearce out for 6 runs. Fraser was brought on for an over and did not disappoint with not a run being scored off his bowling.

Payne took over from Fraser and began with some good deliveries. He too was very unlucky not to get a wicket as there were some near misses as the Echo’s Evans began to open up the bat scoring 17 before he was bowled by McVeigh. McVeigh bowled 1 over taking one wicket for 3 runs. The last three overs were shared between Marchant and Ward for the fall of 1 wicket when Griffiths was run out having made 10. Having completed 20 overs the Cavaliers had to chase down the South Wales Echo score 105 for 6.

Parsons and Fraser opened the batting for the Cavaliers and got us of to a steady start with what looked to be a solid opening partnership. Having scored 22 hitting three 4’s on the way, Fraser was caught off the bowling of Rees to break up what looked like a match winning partnership. However with Parsons still at the crease, a good start and only one wicket down, the game still looked to be in favour of another Cavaliers win. Davis and Graveson both went for a duck with Davis being run out and Graveson being caught by Tindle off the bowling of Rees. Payne was next to the crease but was quickly dismissed by Rhys for 3. Ward came in to keep Parsons company and steadied the ship hitting two 4’s on his way to 16 before being bowled by Rogers.

Throughout what appeared to be a mini collapse, Parsons was still at the crease pushing his score along and stroking the ball around the field putting the Cavalier’s in a strong position. Having hit five 4’s on his way to 42 Parsons was caught by Savage off the bowling of Rees who topped the Echo’s bowling with 3 wickets from 3 overs conceding 10 runs.

With Pritpal and McVeigh at the crease and overs to spare, they took the Cavaliers over the finish line. Pritpal unbeaten on 4 and McVeigh unbeaten on 10 having hit one 6 and one 4.

Champagne moment: Goes to Pritchard for the stylish way in which he removed the bails to run the Echo batsman out

Team: Jimmy Marchant (capt), Dave Parsons (wkt), Steve Davis, Gareth Payne, Wyn Pritchard, Mike McVeigh, Andrew Graveson, Alasdair Fraser, Pritpal Sagoo, Michael Dawkins, Bill Ward