Friday 16 January 2009

Wellington vs CD - Late and I've got some catch up to do too

Arrr, that’s better.  Back on track with a very good win against a very good team.  The papers call it an upset although I just happy with it being a game where a couple of us (Wellington Firebirds) played better than they did.  We are a good team; we’ve just been playing some average cricket.

Belly won the toss; I felt it was an important one as it looked like a deck that certainly would help the bowlers.  It did, we just didn’t bowl to well to start with.  It swung and did a little off the track and it looked like, to start with, we really tried to bowl quick and swing it big.  Sometimes those things just happen without trying too hard as you get carried away with the conditions, wind up and it comes out all wrong.

I was into the attack in the 7th over; a little earlier than I have bowled when coming on as the 3rd seamer.  I was quite excited about this actually.  I wanted to get into it on.  First over went for 6, next went for 4 with two wides in it.  Ten off two, not the best start.  It was pretty good from there though.

I had got out to warm ups in the morning with a bit of a sore shoulder.  Had bowled at training the day before and everything had been fine, but the morning of this match there was a little twinge there, to the point where I thought I might have been doubtful for a start.  I got into my bowling warm ups a little earlier than normal to test it out and give the ‘all clear’ to the captain.  It wasn’t 100%, but it certainly wasn’t hurting as much as it was before warming up or feeling like I was doing more damage to it.  Was pretty happy with the bowling first too as I wouldn’t have to cool down and then warm up again 3 ½ hours later.

I bowled my 10 overs in two spells, first one of eight and then two towards the end.  I finished up with 2-33 with a couple of decisions that could, on another day, gone the other way, also had Howza dropped before he scored and he went on to get 88*; good players make you pay.  I was pretty happy with how it came out.  I have been working on bowling a bit straighter than I have done in the past and from the stats, in this match, I am pretty close to what I think is about the right amount of balls in the right ‘lines’ category.  It swung for me and it came out as quick as I certainly could have hoped for.  It just felt really good, in saying that I did bowl my first extras of this One Day campaign.  I bowled three wides yesterday after bowling none in the previous four matches.  I can’t even tell you why, it did swing, but from where I was trying to bowl it should have been fine.  I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, just as long as I don’t over step and get no-balled, that’s a real no, no!

Set 264 to win, CD had batted well and got more than I would have estimated at the start of the innings, but maybe less that they could have from 120-2.  They did also score 55 off the ‘batters’ power play, 52 of them in four overs and I managed to sneak in the other over that went for three.  That may sound like a bit of ‘trumpet blowing’ but I’m pretty proud of how things go sometimes and so why not show it.

We knocked 264 off in the 46th over with six wickets still in the shed.  There was even talk of possibly going after the bonus point by getting there by the 40th over.  Now that would have been cheeky and probably not a risk we needed taking after not batting so well, especially, in the previous two matches.  Belly and Nap’s opened.  A change at the top of the order with Nap’s heading up there to give the start of the innings a bit of a kick start, it worked.  Off to a bit of a flyer and when this happens it makes bowling a whole lot harder; the nerves and mind start going, you start thinking about what happens when you bowl a bad ball, or even good balls disappearing past and over fielders.  The pressure is back on the fielding captain, his job becomes tough.  Belly batted through until we needed just two runs to win; a great knock and one that obviously won it for us.  It wasn’t a classical innings but that don’t matter when you have success and win.

 

 

I wrote all that about 3 days ago, just prior to the match we have just played against Auckland and haven’t had a chance to post it because of travelling and playing and also moving.  I’ve now got a place to live! 

More frequent updates shouldn’t be a problem now.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to read about the FireBirds -- I read it was right down to the wire against ND today!

Well bowled in both games mate, hope you break into the ODI side soon.

-- TPMK

Anonymous said...

Good stuff Iain. Crickey, was keeping up to date with the ND game via the internet, Gillespie must be gutted. Not entirely sure what happened, but if you could fill us in that would be great.

I see you had another good day, 3/43 when most of the bowlers went around the park a bit aint too shabby at all. Congrats.

Hopefully the teams fortunes change for the next game! Good luck mate!

Anonymous said...

Hey Iain saw a piece in the paper yesterday titled 'Bring Back O'Brien'. You have the public's backing should not be long before the selectors realise how great you are and that you should be playing for New Zealand in all three forms of the game.

Anonymous said...

where have you moved to, Iain?

Hamish Gray said...
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