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Sat 14 Jul 2018 · Premier One
Goatacre CC - 1st XI
1st XI
144
194
1st XI - Game 11 - Bristol 194, Goatacre 144
Will Rudge18 Jul 2018 - 08:55
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Rudge 50 and Noema-Barnett 6-for set up another win
An extraordinary innings of 59 off 35 balls, with nine sixes, from Will Rudge turned the game in Bristol’s favour, and then three wickets in four balls from Kieran Noema-Barnett laid waste to Goatacre’s top order. Noema-Barnett finished with 6 for 38 as Bristol completed victory by 50 runs to keep their title hopes alive.
Rudge came to the crease with the score at 99 for 6 in the 36th over and soon watched as Louie Shaw departed LBW to Wilkins, shuffling across his crease, and Tommy Probert was bowled by the same bowler, playing back.
That made it 111 for 8, with Rudge on 2 from 14 balls, and in the next over, bowled by Jack Haines, the Bristol skipper put into practice a clear and uncomplicated game-plan and came out swinging. He edged the first ball, but such was his commitment to the shot, and so short was the boundary, that the ball smashed into the stone wall beyond the third man boundary. The next ball he middled, and it travelled a very long way over straight long-on and into the adjoining property.
A single off the fifth ball allowed him to repeat the dose in the next over, bowled by Wilkins. Again two sixes, this time off balls one and four: the first just carrying over long-off, the second comfortably clearing the rope at wide long-on. Then a single off the final ball, so he was ready to go again at the other end with another six over wide long-on (not quite as big as the first) and one almost dead straight that came down with snow on it.
Once again a fifth ball single, with the final ball safely negotiated by Ash Joyner, left Rudge set for his last hurrah: two straight sixes into the nursing home and another Exocet over the scoreboard at deep extra cover.
Of course such a tactic couldn’t bear fruit indefinitely, and he finally holed out to short third man, but by then he had taken the score almost single-handedly to 168. For the second week in a row Joyner and Neil Pollard made a valuable contribution for the last wicket. A deft run down to third man for four by Pollard was the highlight and the pair managed to extend the Bristol innings into the final over – for which you would have been quoted long odds at the 40-over mark, and post a competitive total of 194.
Of the earlier batsmen, Fin Trenouth and Shaw also deserve credit for soaking up the pressure that the Goatacre bowlers applied after reducing the visitors to 39 for 4 in the 14th over. Trenouth, whose new, more conservative approach we are becoming familiar with, accumulated just four singles off his first 27 balls, before finding the boundary for the first time with a square cut off his 28th. He looked to be starting to impose himself, on a capricious pitch that could never be fully trusted, and had hit two further fours before falling victim to an implausible reaction catch by Miles off his own bowling. Shaw had a similarly watchful beginning and was on 9 off 44 balls before he took full toll on some loose balls from Miles with a couple of sixes into the trees at deep mid-wicket.
The successes of Bristol’s lower order gave the team momentum as they came out to field and they were quickly in amongst the Goatacre top order, Ed Wilkins chopping on to his stumps off Rudge in the second over. Noema-Barnett had a very confident LBW appeal against Breet turned down off the last ball of the next over, which had by then conceded three fours off the bat, another off the pads and wide that went to the boundary. In the fifth over Noema-Barnett beat the edge of Haines’s bat five balls out of six, and his next, the seventh of the innings, was his golden over.
Haines somehow contrived to hit the ball aerially to short mid-wicket and Trenouth took the catch comfortably above his head. Two balls later Horton was LBW, and the next ball Jonathan Wilkins edged behind to Bracey.
Bradley Dawson and Joe Breet staged something of a recovery, although Tommy Probert beat Breet’s bat repeatedly in his first over and was unlucky that an edge to third man just eluded Lisle Durrans’ dive and went for six.
Bristol’s bowlers stuck to their task and gradually wheedled out the middle order. Dawson was LBW trying to sweep Shaw, and Kevin Iles was yorked by a Probert inswinger. Joyner trapped Breet LBW off his second ball and at 112 for 7 it only remained for Noema-Barnett to return to clean up the tail.
Rudge came to the crease with the score at 99 for 6 in the 36th over and soon watched as Louie Shaw departed LBW to Wilkins, shuffling across his crease, and Tommy Probert was bowled by the same bowler, playing back.
That made it 111 for 8, with Rudge on 2 from 14 balls, and in the next over, bowled by Jack Haines, the Bristol skipper put into practice a clear and uncomplicated game-plan and came out swinging. He edged the first ball, but such was his commitment to the shot, and so short was the boundary, that the ball smashed into the stone wall beyond the third man boundary. The next ball he middled, and it travelled a very long way over straight long-on and into the adjoining property.
A single off the fifth ball allowed him to repeat the dose in the next over, bowled by Wilkins. Again two sixes, this time off balls one and four: the first just carrying over long-off, the second comfortably clearing the rope at wide long-on. Then a single off the final ball, so he was ready to go again at the other end with another six over wide long-on (not quite as big as the first) and one almost dead straight that came down with snow on it.
Once again a fifth ball single, with the final ball safely negotiated by Ash Joyner, left Rudge set for his last hurrah: two straight sixes into the nursing home and another Exocet over the scoreboard at deep extra cover.
Of course such a tactic couldn’t bear fruit indefinitely, and he finally holed out to short third man, but by then he had taken the score almost single-handedly to 168. For the second week in a row Joyner and Neil Pollard made a valuable contribution for the last wicket. A deft run down to third man for four by Pollard was the highlight and the pair managed to extend the Bristol innings into the final over – for which you would have been quoted long odds at the 40-over mark, and post a competitive total of 194.
Of the earlier batsmen, Fin Trenouth and Shaw also deserve credit for soaking up the pressure that the Goatacre bowlers applied after reducing the visitors to 39 for 4 in the 14th over. Trenouth, whose new, more conservative approach we are becoming familiar with, accumulated just four singles off his first 27 balls, before finding the boundary for the first time with a square cut off his 28th. He looked to be starting to impose himself, on a capricious pitch that could never be fully trusted, and had hit two further fours before falling victim to an implausible reaction catch by Miles off his own bowling. Shaw had a similarly watchful beginning and was on 9 off 44 balls before he took full toll on some loose balls from Miles with a couple of sixes into the trees at deep mid-wicket.
The successes of Bristol’s lower order gave the team momentum as they came out to field and they were quickly in amongst the Goatacre top order, Ed Wilkins chopping on to his stumps off Rudge in the second over. Noema-Barnett had a very confident LBW appeal against Breet turned down off the last ball of the next over, which had by then conceded three fours off the bat, another off the pads and wide that went to the boundary. In the fifth over Noema-Barnett beat the edge of Haines’s bat five balls out of six, and his next, the seventh of the innings, was his golden over.
Haines somehow contrived to hit the ball aerially to short mid-wicket and Trenouth took the catch comfortably above his head. Two balls later Horton was LBW, and the next ball Jonathan Wilkins edged behind to Bracey.
Bradley Dawson and Joe Breet staged something of a recovery, although Tommy Probert beat Breet’s bat repeatedly in his first over and was unlucky that an edge to third man just eluded Lisle Durrans’ dive and went for six.
Bristol’s bowlers stuck to their task and gradually wheedled out the middle order. Dawson was LBW trying to sweep Shaw, and Kevin Iles was yorked by a Probert inswinger. Joyner trapped Breet LBW off his second ball and at 112 for 7 it only remained for Noema-Barnett to return to clean up the tail.
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