What a shitty way to end the cricket season yesterday.
We lost the toss of the coin and Moe decided to have a bat. They went pretty smoothly for 10 overs without losing a wicket and then within the space of half an hour we had them on the ropes. Great bowling and some pretty crappy shots put us neck deep in the game. I took a catch keeping up to the stumps off a quick bowler and then grabbed a catch down the leg side AND stumped the batter off the same delivery yet both were given Not Out. The umpires were batting for Moe which really sucked ass. We ended up rolling them for 109 yet the job was only half done and we knew it.
Our batting was disgraceful. When I went in the score was at 5-22. I only made 1 before being cheated out. I edged a ball to 3rd slip where it bounced just before a diving fieldsman who then scooped it up and claimed the catch. I couldn't believe it when the square leg umpire gave me out. You could hear the thud as the ball hit the ground before being caught. I sort of went off tap a bit. I don't mind getting out to a bad ball, good ball or whatever. But that was hard to swallow. Especially in the Granny. After that we fell apart and only some lusty hitting from our Captain Coach saw our score reach 58 before we were all out.
After starting the season in October 2009 - Really bad way to end it.
We're going back into A Grade next season so it shall be interesting to see how we fare. I'll continue to play on for a few more seasons. I thought personally that my keeping yesterday was at it's peak performance. Really did a good job.
A lot of people have commented on my keeping this year. One of the reasons is that I have not worn shin pads all year YET still got up to the stumps when our fast bowlers were operating. Every team we have played have sort of been amazed that I could do such a good job and not get hit in the legs.