Melvins Final Blog!

We made it to the Final

And so it came to pass. England versus Australia the much anticipated final match up of the 2nd Instalment of the Over 60’s Cricket World Cup.The two country’s even at this level were no strangers to each other. Some royal battles had been fought on the fields of Australia and England and even Barbados& Canada as well. It’s all to play for then on the biggest stage of all. In Chennai, India for status of World Cup holders 2024!

Richard Merriman won the toss and despite a slightly damp looking wicket& outfield elected to bat first. A regular feature of Englands progress to date had been to bat first and post imposing scores on their opposition. However this time and against the well oiled fielding machine that is Australia would this policy to bat first pay off? We were about to find out!

Perhaps a little surprisingly the Aussies opened their attack with a left arm spinner& a gentle seamer.Which to an extent allowed the England Openers a steady start. However as overs continued to pass quickly our two experienced Openers Started to get a little bogged down with the accuracy of the Aussie attack. Gaywood in an attempt to press the accelerator and get more momentum into the innings perished in so doing. Although a decent start it also felt that pressure was on the England batters to wrestle some initiative back. Douglas& Merriman attempted to do this but the Aussie fielders were cutting off the main boundary options for Douglas in particular and as is Monties won’t he was also turning down a numbered of east singles to keep the scoreboard ticking. I was wondering if England would regret not taking more chances to take on the fielders more.Certainly it looked like a slight panic might set in when firstly Merriman and then Nick Newman were dismissed in quick succession around the midway mark of the innings. Newman had been shuffled up the innings unexpectedly at the fall of the Capt’s wicket a decision which didn’t pay off unfortunately for Nick or England. A Centurion in our previous game at this same ground Newman was dismissed LBW this time without scoring. Hussein Joined Douglas to try and shift momentum and it was noticeable that Mel was trying to put more emphasis on taking singles wherever possible. Not really Monties game but he too suddenly realised the urgency of the situation. The Aussies were simply suffocating any attempts to Score in boundaries and so something had to give. Alas for England it was to be a clatter of wkts in short time and in an attempt to’get on with it’ we suffered two quick run out’s again through pressure and very sharp fielding.

This Aussie team had us between a rock and a hard place with tight bowling and fielding and the pressure to keep scoring was proving a great challenge for our ‘Gun batsmen! It seemed the Aussies had done their homework in seeing the Englishmen’s strengths and weaknesses! Hats off to them for being ahead of us in this respect. Our guys seemed a bit unable to adapt their games to challenge the Aussies control.

Melvin and Marcus reflecting from the boundary edge

And so it transpired that England came up a bit under par at 214-9. I calculated that the Aussies saved up-to 40 runs through their aggressive fields and Englands lack of urgency to take them on.

250+would have been a much stiffer task for the Aussies but it was what it was and England would have to bowl& field like lions to pull off an unlikely victory now.

With Merriman’s words ringing in there collective ears the Englishmen took to the field to defend there honor and attempt to stifle the Aussie response. Unfortunately the Aussie batsmen were as hard to remove from their own mission as you might imagine. The English bowlers struggled to find their usual lines of attack and alas bowled too many four balls and so were unable to apply the much needed constant pressure to the Aussie batsmen.Merriman juggled his bowlers to search for a good combination but even the reliable Marcus& Phillips struggled from their respective ends this time. You might say that the Aussies didn’t allow them to by being pro-active but equally we just didn’t seem to apply the same control that we had in all previous games pretty much!

Also there was a significant difference in the Aussie intent to put pressure on the field at all times by taking quick singles and two’s where England had been less active!

Although we did manage to take a quick double of wkts around half way with O’Riley& Capt Peter going in quick succession this only brought in the impressively fit Graeme Pavey to the wicket who essentially run the England field ragged along with his partner Smith and they took Australia across the line impressively with 3.5 overs to spare.

A sad ending for England who were simply outplayed by a smarter team on the day. Particularly hard for Capt Merriman who had invested so much effort himself in Winning the World Cup but at the last England fell well short. Some obvious mistakes in the final analysis will no doubt be reflected upon and maybe some changes will be made in certain strategies for future tournaments. For now though we have to praise and admire the Aussie success and how they have set the standard for all others to aspire too. It’s a simple logic perhaps but requires a big commitment from its players to want to achieve its goal ultimately.

Time will tell how the England team will adapt itself to fulfilling objectives in the future.

For now though Chapeaux to Australia and commiserations to a tired looking England after 3 wks of effort in the the Chennai heat. Second isn’t bad but could and maybe should have been so much more. Carpe diem as our favourite physio might say.

Let’s step it up for next time!

‘Along for the ride’ with Marvelous Melvin your World Cup Mascot. With accompaniment from his ghost writer JB

Manana manana

In the shadow of the Aussies this time!