Cambridgeshire beat Cumbria at Kendal Cricket Club, knocking them out of this year’s National Counties One Day Trophy campaign, writes Roxine Beaumont-Sempill.
Conditions were very different to those experienced by Cumbria when they played Bedfordshire at Dunstable Cricket Club the previous week. Sunshine replaced the clouds; stillness replaced the very chill wind.
Cumbria won the toss and elected to field.
Captain Michael Slack (Carlisle) opened the bowling with a maiden over. Fresh from his five-fer at Dunstable, Sam Sharp (on his home ground) was the other opening bowler.
From the 3rd over, Cambridgeshire’s opening batsmen Nick Kirkwood and Yousuf Choudhary started to thread the ball through the fielders for boundaries.
Fifth ball of 7th over, the ball soared up from Kirkwood’s bat and just cleared leaping slip Freddie Fallows (Kendal) before bouncing across the rope.
That near-miss might have unsettled the visitor, because next ball he holed out to Sam Dutton (Barrow) at mid-off, giving Slack the first wicket. 36/1 from 7 overs.
Cambridgeshire were still going at just over 5 an over when Louis Backhouse came on to bowl from his preferred end on his home ground. When his first 3 balls went for 4, 1lb, 6, Backhouse might have experienced flashbacks to his first outing for Cumbria at Gosforth Cricket Club a fortnight before.
However, with support from coach Paul Hindmarch on the boundary, he soon controlled his line and length. Second ball of his second over he was rewarded with a catch by teammate wicketkeeper Finlay Richardson to dismiss Choudhary (22 off 26).
This heralded a lean period for the visitors. Ben Claydon (4 off 15) was out lbw in the 18th over, Ben Saunders (21 from 38) bowled in the 20th, both falling to Backhouse.
By the time that Ben Walkden (Newton-le-Willows) replaced Backhouse, the latter and Fallows had conceded neither boundary nor extra in 10 overs. With the score at 95/4 from 25 overs, the hosts seemed in control.
The next wicket was courtesy of Fallows. The big man surprised the batsmen, spectators and even himself with a superb diving gather at mid-on to run out Lee Thomason (8 off 27). 105/5 from 28 overs.
This dismissal brought together captain Callum Guest and Henry Wilson. Bowlers Matthew Sempill (Cockermouth), Walkden, Nico Watt (Carlisle) and Fallows toiled, but were unable to break the best partnership of the match (98 off 96 balls) until Guest (40 of 60) was bowled by Backhouse in the 44th over.
Four overs later Wilson (71 from 76) was caught at long-off by Slack off Sharp. Similarly to the previous week’s match, the last ball of the innings brought a run out. This time Fallows effected his second run out of the match, with the keeper’s assistance, to dismiss George Darlow (6 off 6).
Backhouse’s figures were 10 overs, 1 maiden, 40 runs, 4 wickets, economy 4.00. At the tea break, 255/8 was considered to be perhaps 25 too many, largely down to unusually loose fielding at times by the hosts.
Opening batsmen Evan WIlliams (Horwich RMI) and Dutton settled to the task, with a watchful first 3 overs. Then Williams amassed 11 runs from the 4th over off Matt Rees. Four days previously Rees had been Backhouse’s teammate for Yorkshire 2nds in their victory over Durham 2nds at Scarborough.
Sadly Willams (13 off 25) was out lbw to James Cox in the next over. By the 12th over Dutts seemed to be in the zone, and had scored a sprightly 20 off 21 balls, when he slammed one straight into the hands of Kirkwood at square leg, off Jack Loveday.
Four overs later a ball struck Walkden’s bat and shot straight up, eventually pouched by keeper Thomason.
This brought Sempill to join Slack. 55/3 off 15.5 was not all that different to the situation that Sempill had faced the previous week, when he had come in at 68/3 off 14.4. Sadly, that’s where the comparison ended. Whereas the previous week he had scored 112 in just over 2 hours, this time he was out for a duck in 3 minutes.
Slack and Greg Platten (Cockermouth) settled to put on a partnership of 29 off 65, before Platten was caught by Saunders at cover off Darlow.
When the dangerous Fallows joined the established Slack at the crease, the behind-the-rate score of 85/5 off 27.2 could have been overcome (the visitors had been on 105/4).
Unfortunately, Fallows (1 off 6) was caught at point by Rees off Darlow in the 30th over, Slack (27 off 54) fell lbw attempting a sweep in the 32nd over, immediately followed by Watt, out first ball.
Richardson and Sharp put on a creditable 40 off 42 balls, the best partnership of the innings, before Richardson (19 off 33) was out to a rapid reaction catch by bowler Cox with the penultimate ball of 39th over.
Two balls later Sharp (15 off 17) was bowled by top-performing bowler Darlow (8.1 overs, 1 maiden, 32 runs, 5 wickets).
All through the innings, Cumbria had been about 20 runs behind Cambridgeshire at the same points, but sadly falling wickets were their downfall.
Cumbria’s last fixture in the One Day Trophy starts at 11am.
- Sunday May 18 v Lincolnshire at Furness Cricket Club
Cumbria’s first Twenty20 Cup fixtures start at 10am and 2pm:
- Sunday 8 June v Northumberland at Keswick Cricket Club
