Loughton South cc

 Andrew Shields No.3________________

Shields was the captain for this match and will be captain for the season as far as I can make out. His data over the last 10 years...

Looked like a solid batsman with a good range of shots around the wicket. Deft late cut, but we had a bloke there that cut that off. A flick off the legs to fine leg was another preferred shot, but generally the sense I got was that he had the ability to hit the ball where he wanted to potentially, but our field we set for him, which was pretty standard worked well. One of his main shots is the cover drive which he hit plenty of, but with the conditions -  virtually 100% of these were simply fielded. Another shot seen quite a bit was a late cut. 

 Our field made use of the conditions and we had everyone on the edge of the circle as such, but this was primarily due to the fact that the grass was so long and covered with cuttings, the ball wasn't going to be going for fours much at all. Given a dryer day with a fast outfield he'd have been far more of a handful. 

We got wickets early and we may have got their 2 best bats cheap and this may have affected Shield's approach. He was very watchful and seemingly un-phased by the very low run rate (1 an over for the first 20 overs as I recall). He was dropped a few times - drive through Mid off (Off my bowling). Cut shot attempt through point top-edged and dropped by our keeper (Off my bowling) and dropped at Gully. Not a candidate for stumpings, didn't come out of his crease as far as I noticed. If you're a Wrist-Spinner with a straight variation and the wicket allows for the ball to turn well, an approach you might find useful is to bowl on a good length given the conditions you have and set him up with straight balls. Balls on a good length he tends to defend with a straight bat, so then bring in the small Leg-Break and the edge might be found? 

He was eventually trapped LBW sweeping Kirby Jennings (Slow Left arm orthodox). 

Aarush Rout No.9 _______________________

Rout is an under 15's player and plays a lot of cricket. 

Rout came out at Number 9 and right from the on-set looked good. I'd been bowled out so didn't get to bowl at him, but he did say that he was glad that he didn't have to face me and felt that he might have struggled.

He was busy, looking to rotate the strike with Shields and others with an obvious good leg glance into the area between square leg and fine leg, which I quickly cut off and had a tactic for. He then changed it up and went for a more aggressive shot looking to pierce the gap between square leg and mid wicket. Again, I reacted moving from a position of backward of square leg to forward of square leg and almost caught him in that position on the edge of the circle - the ball bobbling out of my hand as it was hit so hard and I didn't have soft hands. 

We tightened up the Leg-side field and stymied his shots through there, but he also had some straight shots and late cuts/cut shots through point and backward point, but the fielders and the state of the grass stopped his efforts through there. 

More so than any of the other players he was confident and skilled enough to come out of his crease and hit the ball on the full and he did this time and time again against Kirby Jennings (SLA). 

He survived all of the bowling we threw at him and came away with the highest score and a not out. I reckon he'll be fun to bowl at and I'm hoping that he continues to bat as he does and works his way up the batting order by the time we visit their ground and I get the chance to bowl at him. Not only is he a good batter he then went on to open the bowling with Leggies... 8-4-7-4. A very impressive young allrounder. 

Rohit Taheem No.4_____________________

Taheem came out during my spell while I was bowling with Henry and Lee Thompson as I recall.

Taheem's batting data here suggests that he's new to the club. 

Taheem scored quickly and looked like he was looking to take the attack to us and upset our work.

Thankfully, I was bowling well and I slowed him down. I had really good support in the field especially from Lee Thompson and some of the balls he'd have hoped to have scored runs off. Lee pulled off some superb stops and kept him at the crease. 

I hardly bowled any Leg-Breaks in this spell - out of the 48 balls perhaps 4? One or two of these to Taheem to try and let him see that it was there as an option. After a beauty that he blocked and only just missed his bat he then pulled out a big shot in the style of a bloke looking to not let the spinner settle and hit the ball straight at me at about 100 mph and I caught it clean - bowled and caught... Nice!

I had a chat with him and he's looking forward to a re-match and reckons he's got my number! Love it, can't wait!

Again as with all the others, the wagon wheels are representational of a game played on long, damp grass. In different conditions it would have been a different story, almost 100%.