Academy Beat Gully in Jolly Good Game of Cricket

The Lindum Academy had the joy of welcoming Gully Cricketers to Lindum Cricket Ground for this eagerly anticipated fixture after such an all round positive fixture earlier in the season. Sri, in his role as scorer for Gully had his score book, laptop and phone ready to bring scoring into the 21st century and surrounded by more keyboards than Rick Wakeman in his prime. The conditions were dry, the outfield fast and the temperature scorching, therefore a good toss to win and ask the opposition to field. The Academy’s opening pair of Ben Rolfs and Rishabh got off to a watchful start before Ben started finding the gaps beautifully and pushing the score and his total in the right direction. Rishabh was out after scoring only two with, I have to say, a shocking bit of running! Next to the crease was Zac who built a nice partnership of 78 with Ben with the diminutive pair scurrying between the wickets like a pair of…….. very quick things. Zac built a decent innings of 16 before being caught at short mid-wicket looking to turn one into the gap. Sam N went cheaply and Owen played some nice shots before departing for nine but not before Ben reached a wonderful century (103 from 79 balls) at which point Ben retired not out. Charlie and Harry were now at the crease and they built a really well crafted 50 partnership playing some nice shots and punishing the bad balls. Charlie was out for 23, bringing Jon Begley into the fray. Harry continued to play well, reaching 31 before falling, Mr Alan came and went and Gautam and Jon saw out the remaining overs finishing on three and 16 not out respectively. A total of 226 seemed very competitive indeed.

The Gully reply got off to a quick fire start, reaching 53 -1 after 10 overs with Sam N accounting for one of their openers. Gully were particularly aggressive in their approach, punishing anything fractionally short and sending it on its way to the boundary. After a difficult session for the quicker bowlers the young spinners came on and took the next six wickets. Zac picked up two and held his nerve whilst the Gully batsmen went on the attack, Gautam bowled well and picked up a stumping and Rishabh bowled exceptionally well, picking up three wickets for 21. Whilst wickets came at regular intervals, the Gully batsmen were also keeping the runs flowing all too quickly towards Lindum’s target of 226. Particular plaudits must go to Kunal Targe (73), Kashif Butt (54) and Naren Padhiyar (38) who took Gully to 201 coming into the final over. At this point Beggers asked Zac to bowl the last over - 12 runs came off it leaving Gully short of the required total.

A really good game with lots of positives for both sides. This was Gully’s highest score (well done) and also contained their highest individual score (again, well done) and their performance was so much tighter and stronger than when we last met. However, huge credit to the very young Lindum side which held its nerve in the field. It was also particularly pleasing to see the young lads making significant contributions with the bat which enabled partnerships to be built that eventually led to a winning total.

I think that the heat maybe got too much for one of the umpires who gave all the decisions and raised his finger quicker than a GP carrying out annual health checks on the over 50s.

A great game that bodes well for both teams and thanks Gully for the support you bring with you. Have a good rest of the season.

Report by Wes Shelbourne