Down but far from out
Ramsbottom 1st Team v Norden 1st team – (H) 14 August 2021
NCC 229 for 2 (50 overs) RCC 88 for 3 (25.4 overs) NCC win by 15 runs D/L method
Scorecard here
Sometimes when a team is chasing the ball all over the ground heads can drop and a lack of commitment come into the fielding side. Once again turning out a weakened side this could have easily happened to Rammy against a strong Norden outfit. It is a great credit to our bowlers and fielders in particular that this did not happen. Batting first Norden at one stage looked like recording a total well in excess of 250 on what was a very placid track. That they only scored 229 was down to a real gutsy performance by all 11 players in the field.
I lost count of the hard yards put in by boundary fielders, the diving stops and the clean pick ups from well hit strokes. That kind of performance and resilience is character building and its a standard which should be aimed at on a week by week basis.
Chasing any target in excess of 200 is tough and when we lost our two openers cheaply, Alex to a dubious decision and Brad to a mistimed pull we looked up against it big style. Our pro Daryn then joined skipper Grimmy at the wicket and the pair slowly but surely started to come to terms with the opposition attack. As stated the wicket was very easy paced and playing in damp drizzly conditions (the kind of rain that wets you) they shared a 58 run partnership before Grimmy was surprisingly bowled having looked in no kind of trouble previously. Harry Caton (playing only 2 weeks after dislocating and suffering a hairline fracture in is finger) then joined Daryn and neither looked in any kind of trouble until the umpires quite rightly took the players off the field in worsening conditions. At this time we were on 88, just 15 runs short of the Duckworth Lewis target score. With no further play possible we managed to finish with 4 bonus points which under the circumstances I thought was a very acceptable performance,
Obviously if the game had run its full course Norden would have been long odds on favourites but we have all seen what Daryn has done in the past and he looked like he was in real form so who knows.
In a change from the norm I am giving the man of the match to a fielder and thought Jack Thomond did an excellent job.
