Cumbria County Cricket Club lost their second brace of matches in this year’s National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA) Dojo T20 competition, so would need to win all four of their remaining matches to advance further in that competition, writes Roxine A Beaumont-Sempill.
Shropshire travelled to Cockermouth Cricket Club, ready to wreak revenge for their defeat by Cumbria on their home turf in the NCCA NV Play Trophy competition seven weeks before.
It was sunny and hot in the Costa del Sandair, but there with numerous white clouds.
There was a carnival atmosphere at the ground, with a popular hot dog and chips stall and a cake stall run by Round Tablers, with enthusiastic help from several children
In the first match, captain Matthew Sempill, on his home ground, won the toss and elected to field.
Sahal Malvernkar opened his account with a crisp 4 off the first ball. In his second over Freddie Fallows (Kendal CC) exacted revenge getting Malvernkar caught at cover by Ben Walkden (Newton-le-Willows CC).
In the seventh over Fallows was in action again, catching the dangerous Thomas Fell at long off to give young Ethan Hardie-Knight the first of his county wickets to be taken in front of his parents. 36/2 off 6.5 overs.
Joseph Johnson and Theo Wylie than settled into a 57-run partnership. In the 15th over Wylie skied one towards Sam Sharp (Penrith CC), who could not pick out the white ball against the white clouds and white houses: it bounced off his chest, much to Fallows’ frustration.
To rub salt into the wound, several balls later Sharp himself claimed Wylie’s wicket, thanks to a catch at long off by Max Winskill (Shaw CC).
In the 19th over the mother of debutant Harry Temperton (Kendal CC), Fran, was hit by a ball.
It landed on her hand and camera (breaking a nail) and bounced up hitting her on the forehead.
The striker of that ball, Joseph Johnson (69 from 59 balls, 3 X 4s, 3 X 6s) was caught by Ben Walkden, bowled Sharp with the antepenultimate ball of the innings. He went over as soon as he could to check that Fran was okay.
Chasing 136 to win Fallows replicated the visitor’s start with a 4. Sadly, four balls later an attempted reverse sweep resulted in lbw. Calum Rowe (Carlisle CC), Sempill and Walkden were bowled in overs three, four and six, the latter just after he had scored what looked like a comfortable sequence of boundaries: 6,4,4.
45/4 off 6 was not ideal. A situation which worsened 14 balls later when Winskill and Temperton were bowled with successive deliveries.
Unfortunately, it became a bit of a procession back to the home dressing room as Sharp was bowled, Tom Fraine (Clifton Alliance CC) caught at cover, Louis Backhouse (Kendal CC) and Ethan both bowled.
At 65 all out from 14.3 overs the hosts hadn’t even reached half of the score needed.
For the second match Sempill again won the toss, this time electing to bat.
The difficulties continued with Rowe bowled in the 2nd over, Fallows (in a fallow period that all batters endure) was caught behind in the 3rd.
Sempill and Walkden were able to establish Cumbria’s highest partnership of the day (38 off 45 balls) before Walkden was caught at long on. 48/3 from 10.2 overs.
Southpaws Sempill and Fraine seemed settled when Sempill (25 off 27, 1 X 4) thumped the ball for a seemingly certain straight 4.
The bowler Sam Wisniewski dived to his left and the ball stuck in his palm just inches off the deck.
It was almost déjà vu in the 15th over when Temperton got another first ball dismissal, this time lbw by the delivery immediately after Fraine was bowled. When Sharpy was caught mid-wicket there were 2.4 overs left and Cumbria were only on 79/7.
Winskill and Nico Watt (Carlisle CC) were able to score 22 off 16 balls to bring the Sausages to 101/8, with Watt run out in a desperate attempt to score off the last ball.
The Salopians were on 78/0 off 11 overs when Sempill brought himself on to bowl.
His Cockermouth club mates roared approval when Temperton stumped Johnson off Sempill’s first delivery. Temperton reprised the feat 21 balls later, this time from the bowling of Hardie-Knight.
Sadly it was too little, too late. Shropshire triumphed with a score of 105/2 from 15.4 overs.
County landmarks from the day: Falllows (in the 1st match) and Sempill (in the 2nd match) each passed 500 runs in T20 for Cumbria.
Records (positive and negative) were broken: the 10th wicket partnership (in the first match) between Watt and Hardie-Knight (of 7) was a Cumbria T20 record; the 8th wicket partnership (in the second match) between Winskill and Watt (of 22) was a Cumbria T20 record; 65 was our lowest ever total in T20, 101/8 the second lowest; 71 runs was the heaviest defeat for the county in T20.
The final two Dojo T20 Cup fixtures, start times 11am and 2.30pm, are:
- Sunday June 21 v Cheshire at Nantwich CC
- Sunday July 5 v Staffordshire at Carlisle CC
Between those two sets of fixtures Cumbria host Cheshire for the semi-final of the NCCA NV Play Trophy on Sunday June 28 at Keswick Cricket Club, starting at 11am.
Here’s hoping all the bad luck, mistakes and undercooked performances for the season have been used up and the Sausages go from strength to strength for the rest of the season.
