The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1416 by Angharad Copyright © 2011 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

It’s a very long time since I’ve watched cricket match, the format was twenty overs. For the uninitiated, each side gets to bowl twenty overs at each other or a hundred and twenty balls are unleashed–one at a time–duh–during the other team’s innings. They have to try and score as many runs as they can in that time while losing as few wickets as they can.

The object is to score the more runs, so the team with more runs wins. In the event of a tie and winner is required, the team with the more wickets left wins. If that doesn’t work, go and toss a coin.

Each team had eleven men, who field or bat. The batsmen have just one life and once given out by the umpire, the next man comes in to bat, which is why it’s called an innings. The bowling side have a bowler and ten fielders one of whom is a wicket keeper, who stands behind the wicket to catch the balls the batsman misses or lets go.

A run only counts if the two batsmen cross, which then means they have to continue to the other end of the pitch–twenty two yards, and the non-striking batsman then takes strike or faces the bowler, unless it was the last ball of the over. When one batsman is better than the other he might try to retain strike because overs are bowled from alternate ends. A bowler is not allowed to bowl consecutive overs.

There are two boundaries, one which if the ball reaches counts as four runs, or six if it clears it. The batsmen may of course run the four or six runs if for instance the fielding side fumble the ball or drop a catch.

Batsmen are given out if the bowler clean bowls them, ie the ball hits the wickets and the bails are dislodged, or the batsman can play onto his wickets, mis-hitting the ball which travels on to the wickets or stumps.

A batsman may also be caught by any of the fielders including the bowler and wicket keeper, or stumped by the wicket keeper, if the batsman is outside his crease, a line about a yard in front of the wicket perhaps playing and missing a ball. A batsman may also be run out, failing to get to the crease from a run where the fielding side throw the ball back to the wicket–at either end and the bails are removed with it. Occasionally, batsmen have been known to try to run when it hasn’t been safe and both have been run out being caught halfway down the pitch, the fielding side managing to throw the ball two both ends and remove both sets of bails.

So essentially the contest is between a bowler who is trying to entice a batsman to play at a ball which is unsuitable for some reason, and which he’ll either miss or hit into the air near a fielder who will catch it. In most schoolboy cricket, there is little subtlety, and it’s usually about bowling at the wicket and hoping your opponent doesn’t hit it too hard or skies it–hits up into the air. Unlike baseball, the batsman doesn’t have to run if it’s not safe to do so–the non-striker usually decides to call his colleague to run or not. It’s all good fun, providing you’re not hit by bat or ball–both are hard and hurt, and have caused fatal injuries in the professional game. Hopefully that wasn’t going to happen today.

I got back to my seat as Danny ran in and bowled his first ball which the batsman played at and missed. The second ball he cut to the leg side for two runs to much applause from the Dickens’ supporters. The third ball he stepped aside to do the same thing and the ball cut back and bowled him removing his leg stump. Ths resulted in many cheers from the Nelson supporters and in Livvie actually getting a picture of the ball hitting the wicket. I was impressed with both of them.

At this point Dickens were ten runs for one wicket off four overs, three balls of which were still to be bowled. The next man in was Clayton and he and Danny exchanged insults. He checked for middle and leg stumps, and in ran Danny, who bowled a perfect Yorker–the ball bounced under the bat as the batsman went to strike and his middle stump was removed. Clayton was furious and threw his bat down declaring he wasn’t ready and it was no ball and so on. The umpire pointed his finger and gave him out–for a duck (no runs).

Danny was now on for a hat trick, three wickets in three balls, however, his next opponent played and missed but survived the delivery.

We all cheered like crazy, calling ’owzat, every time the ball went anywhere near the Dickens’ wickets. Danny, took two more wickets in his four overs, which was pretty good, four wickets for ten runs. Dickens were all out for seventy four runs. There was a short break and the teams switched over, and now Nelson were in to bat.

Danny was batting at number four, which is quite high in the order for a bowler. Unfortunately, he was in before he expected to be as Nelson lost both openers for six runs after only three overs. They needed someone to take the fight back to Dickens and Danny stepped up to the crease to give it his best shot.

Clayton was bowling, so revenge was in his mind. I’d never seen a boy bowl so fast and I’m not sure Danny had either, just managing to duck under the bouncer which would have smashed into his helmet.

The next ball did the same and Danny ducked again. He was safe but there weren’t many runs being hit. Clayton thought he could intimidate his smaller opponent, but while Danny was lighter, his reflexes were faster and the third bouncer from Clayton got the royal treatment–Danny sidestepped and swivelled hitting the ball over the top of the wicket keeper and clearing the boundary got the first six of the day. Clayton was livid, so was I. The umpire shouldn’t have allowed him to bowl three bouncers in a schoolboy game.

In the next over the runs began to come and both Danny and his team mate hit a four. Then it was back to Clayton. He tried a full toss at Danny who responded by hitting it back at him and scoring another four. Clayton then tried bowling differently and each time Danny smashed it to the boundary, by the end of that over, Nelson were over forty runs, twenty four coming off one over.

Clayton was taken off. Nelson lost another wicket and another before they reached fifty. It was now swinging back in Dickens favour, as only Danny was making much impact, he was already on thirty six.

Dickens’ bowlers seemed to lose their concentration and Nelson got to sixty before losing another wicket, Danny was on forty eight. They had two more wickets left, it was going to be close.

By the nineteenth over, Nelson were on seventy four, they needed one more run to win. Clayton came back on again and Danny faced him. He bowled another short ball which bounced up and hit Danny in the face, he fell like a sack of coal. I stood and gasped.

The teachers were running to the fallen boy and Clayton was swaggering about with a huge smile on his face. Trish looked daggers at him and I made her stay with Livvie as I went to see Danny who was now sitting up with a shiner coming up on his left eye.

He rose to his feet a little unsteadily but insisted he batted on–if he’d retired hurt as he should have done–they’d have lost, he and his team mate were now the last remaining batsmen.

Clayton let fly another bouncer and Danny wobbled out of its way. Trish was doing something, muttering and moving her hands. I watched in dread as Clayton fired another cannonball at my son who again managed to get out of its way.

The next ball was on the wicket and Danny just got his bat in the way in time. His eye was swelling and I wasn’t sure how much he could actually see. The last ball of the match, and Clayton bowled a last bouncer–which Danny hit back at him and was about to be caught when Trish waved her hand at Clayton and he moved his hands up to his face and the ball followed them smashing into his nose. He fell down like a lead weight, blood spurting from his nose which was undoubtedly broken.

In the ensuing chaos the two batsmen ran and crossed making it seventy five runs–Nelson had won. Supporters ran on to the pitch and Danny was lifted onto their shoulders, Clayton was still receiving attention on the ground, although I knew he wasn’t as badly hurt as he was making out.

I spoke to Trish. “What did you do?”

“Meeee, Mummy?”

“Yes you, Missy.”

“Nothing, honest,” she smirked.

“Oh, that’s interestin’,” said Livvie looking at some photos on Simon’s Nikon. I looked to see what was interesting and in a series of three shots, she had Danny hit the ball and one of Clayton going to catch it with a blue flash directly in front of his eyes. The final shot was the ball catching him in the face.

“So you did nothing?” I accused Trish.

“Nothing you can prove,” she blushed.

“There’s a photo there with the evidence,” I said tersely to her.

“Um–I’m afraid not, Mummy, I accidentally deleted it,” Livvie waved the camera.

“Don’t you dare let me catch you using the light for your own advantage again,” I scolded Trish.

“Well the other boy was trying to kill my brother, and he nearly succeeded, so I sent some light to the ball to help him see it. It was still attached to it when Clayton tried to catch it, ‘snot my fault he can’t catch.”

I sent a text to Simon to say Danny had won the match, he sent one back sending congrats and to say he’d bought the bat already–having complete confidence in his son. I think Danny would have got the bat anyway, Simon was so pleased they got to the final.

The girls and I thought Danny displayed great courage and spirit so he was our hero anyway, and this time after he was presented with the cup which actually stays in school, he came back to the car with us and he made no complaint about Trish trying to reduce the swelling round his eye.