Cumbria County Cricket Club have won their first three matches of the season in the NCCA NV Play Trophy Group 1 and progress to the quarter finals, writes Roxine A Beaumont-Semple.
A win by 47 runs sounds like a walk in the park: it certainly wasn’t.
The pitch was, however, set in pleasant park land: bucolic scenes around most of the pitch featured cows behind a rustic fence.
When Cumbria last played at Exning Park in Cambridgeshire, in July 2022, it was almost too hot from the start, even for spectators.
This time it was quite chilly, with a cold breeze end to end and grey clouds which threatened rain.
Cambridgeshire won the toss and elected to field.
That decision seemed to be vindicated when both teenage openers were dismissed within 2 overs.
Faizan Ghumman (Newcastle CC & Durham Second XI, ex-Furness CC) was caught behind when fending off a ball that reared up, and Tom Fraine (Clifton Alliance CC) was caught at deep fine leg.
Ben Walkden (Newton-le-Willows CC) and Calum Rowe (Carlisle CC) settled into a 38-run partnership which was broken when Walky was bowled.
The score was 48/3 from 13.1. Fortunately, Rowe was able to establish the highest partnership of the match, 59 off 86 balls, with skipper Matthew Sempill (Cockermouth CC, 41 off 50 balls, 4 X 4, 1 X 6), before the latter was caught behind off a ball which came for his throat.
Having faced just 5 balls for his 5 runs, Ben Davidson (Carlisle CC) was dismissed by a superb low left-handed catch by right hander Loveday in the slips.
This brought Freddie Fallows (Kendal CC) to the crease, joking to his teammates that he was going to try to hit a cow.
Fallows faced 12 of the next 14 balls, scoring 21 from them.
Two sixes soared over the fence, but no cow was struck, not even the polled Hereford which was standing rooted to the spot for some time, seemingly absorbed by the game.
Rowe was given out lbw 5th ball of 32nd over. Batting for seven minutes short of 2 hours, he was Cumbria’s top scorer: 55 runs off 89 balls, 5 X 4s. The visitors were at that point 146/6 off 31.5 overs.
When Drew Postlethwaite (Barrow CC) came to join him, Fallows played carefully, facing a further 9 balls for just 6 runs.
Then an attempted reverse sweep off the 2nd ball 37th over resulted in an lbw. Fallows’ was the top strike rate of the match, exactly 140, and he scored 28 off 20 balls, 2 X 4, 2 X 6.
Between them keeper Postlethwaite, bowling all-rounders Sam Sharp (Penrith CC) and Nico Watt (Carlisle CC), and bowler Ethan Hardie-Knight (Cockermouth CC, batting for the county for the first time) were only able to add a further 15 to the score.
183 all out from 40.1 overs seemed light. By comparison, in 2022, Cambridgeshire (who, on that occasion, had elected to bat first) had scored 229/9 off their 50 overs.
It seemed very likely that Cumbria’s unused 9.5 overs would be costly. The clouds had cleared somewhat, the sun was beginning to break through and there were no demons in the pitch. So, the odds were in the host’s favour.
Recent injuries meant that Cumbria travelled with only 2 seamers. In 2022 four Cumbrians had, between them, bowled 32 overs of pace and taken 6 of the 9 wickets.
Fortunately, one of those was Sharp, who had dismissed the top 4 batsmen on his own: 2 caught and bowled and 2 bowled. That day Sharp’s first spell was 8 overs, during which he took 4 wickets for just 13 runs.
By severe contrast, in this match, Sharp conceded 13 runs in his first over, including three 4s by Ben Saunders. The hosts were cock-a-hoop!
Walkden remained calm, bowling a maiden from the other end.
In the 3rd over Mohammed Saif almost emulated his team-mate, scoring two 4s off Sharp. Walkden again calmed things down, conceding just 3 runs in the fourth over.
In the 5th over Sharp began to wreak his revenge with a wicket maiden, getting Saunders caught behind with the 3rd delivery.
Off Sharp’s 3rd delivery 7th over, Watt almost executed a cartwheel at 3rd slip to catch the ball right-handed just above the grass and send Routledge back to the hutch.
Next over Saif top edged a Walkden delivery which ballooned up and back. Lone slipper Fallows ran back several paces to pouch it. 39/3 off 7.5 overs.
Three maiden overs followed, the third being another wicket maiden when Sharp got Rizvi trapped lbw.
5th legitimate ball of the 19th (and Sharp’s 10th and last) over Tetley was given out lbw. At 61/5 from 18.6 overs, Cambridge were beginning to get the (light) blues and the sausages were sizzling.
Spinners Fallows, Watt, Hardie-Knight and Rowe gradually saw off the remaining batters. Watt bowled Allen in the 27th over.
Hardie-Knight had Mark Saunders (brother of Ben) stumped in the 30th over. In the 36th over, Fallows caught and bowled Huckle, who was the hosts best batter, scoring 26 off 39, 2 X 4.
Rowe dismissed Sykes lbw in the 37th. Fallows finished off, bowling Loveday: 136/All out (38).
Best bowler of the match was Sharp: 10 overs, 3 maidens, 39 for 4, economy 3.90.
Walkden and Fallows were the most economical bowlers of the match, going at 2.29 and 2.38 respectively.
Cumbria’s final match in the trophy group stage, against Cheshire at Keswick CC on Sunday May 17 at 11am, will determine who will host and who will travel for their quarter finals. So, still a lot to play for.
Then the National Counties T20 Cup campaign begins, start times 11am and 2.30pm:
- Sunday May 31 v Northumberland at Allendale CC
- Sunday June 14 v Shropshire at Cockermouth CC
