Any Given Sunday The Wednesday Can Win.
The Wednesday notched up their fourth Sunday League win of the season and the fifth since we reformed, with an impressive 140 run over Shirebrook.
The game was relocated to the very picturesque settings of Cuckney cricket club, a ground surrounded by a Mid Summer Murders style English village, farmland and woods. After the visiting Wednesday players had raided the nearby factory outlet of a well known, Newcastle United FC owning sports chain, the game approached and Shirebrook won the toss, putting The Wednesday into bat. An understandable decision, given the low scores in last season’s encounters with between these two teams.
The batting was opened by two Wednesday new boys, Ash Naseby and Tim Mansfield, but this wasn’t Mansfield’s day, who was clean bowled soon after getting off the mark. In came Zaf Zahoor, who was looking to put a marker down after a self confessed slow start to the season.
Zahoor flourished with some excellent shots to score all around the wicket and in some style. Sadly Naseby wasn’t about for too long and Zahoor started a useful partnership with Nick Penfold. Penfold came to the wicket at 19-2 and a 2012 style collapse was very possible. This situation called for clever and skilful batting to build momentum.
Thankfully for the visitors, Penfold and Zahoor delivered with some steady batting, with help from the field (both Zahoor and Penfold were dropped at least once). These two provided much needed stability.
Zahoor was really starting to shine with some attractive boundaries before Penfold departed and left The Wednesday on 97-3 after 18 overs. From here, The Wednesday had a significant opportunity to build a solid score over the remaining 22 overs. Such opportunities were rare in 2012, but Zahoor and Penfold built this chance.
From here The Wednesday accelerated. Zahoor continued to dominate the bat and hit two huge sixes. One six was lost in the surrounding farmland, while the other threatened the nearby cars. Zahoor and wiz kid, Biswick-”Lethal”-Kapala, got the score to 177-4, as The Wednesday threaded to mount a big challenge to their Nottinghamshire hosts. Once Kapala and Zahoor had gone, the score was 185-5. The runs dried up somewhat, but crucially the score was taken past the 200 mark as The Wednesday finished on 202-9 after our 40 overs.
After the tea break, The Wednesday were bowling for their second Sunday win in as many weeks and this looked on the cards with ruthless opening spells from Kapala and Penfold.
They seemed eager to the better the other and wanted to challenge Zahoor for Man of the Match with a combination of oppressive and consistent bowling. Their efforts were backed up by a solid fielding display, which saw Shirebrook reduced to 25-7. Victory was surely insight.
With respect to Shirebrook, they battled and the remaining wickets weren’t handed to the visitors. Fittingly, the winning wicket was a superb caught and bowled by Nick Penfold.
In 2012, The Wednesday had a frustrating time on Sundays and Shirebrook were tough, tenacious and sporting competitors. With all respect to Shirebrook who were good in the field and fought to the end, this 140 run win shows the progress that The Wednesday are making.
Hard work and a positive attitude were key to this win and will be to further progress.
