Let's keep it as short as possible, for fear of sounding like a twat. 64* out of a total of 130 odd. 5 overs 3-7 as we won by 15. And a catch. Yes it took 40 overs, but they got away with quite a few down the leg side and it was a tough pitch on which to time it. With not much going on at the other end I couldn't attack as I'd have liked. I got much slower as the innings went on - I can feel when my technique's going because the bottom hand gets too involved. By the end of the innings I looked like a number 11. And I'll bowl better for worse figures. They missed the good ones and got out to pies.
It was a great game - a little reminiscent of the one in Wimbledon, but this time two strong bowling attacks faced two weak batting line ups. I had a feeling that if we bowled wicket-to-wicket 200 was a good score and 150 could cause a few jitters. I didn't think 130 was enough - that low a total and it's a simple equation, really: bat 30 overs, keep wickets in hand and you're unlikely to go far wrong. But the trouble with a total like that is that people think they can go out and settle it with one good over. On that pitch, with the ball not coming onto the bat and just offering to nibble around, and with huge boundaries, that big over never comes. So wicket after wicket fell, and panic set in, and the momentum was with us, and to be honest once they were five down I never thought the result was in much doubt.
Actually, there is something. One thing I've learned from this weekend is that there's being in form and there's being in form. I wasn't timing a thing. I must have faced about 250-300 balls this weekend, and didn't middle many of them. But I was in form. At no point did I think that a bowler was going to get me out, and they didn't. And I faced some good'uns this weekend. I might not always have had my feet moving or my balance right, but I felt like I knew exactly what every bowler was trying to do, where they were going to bowl and how I needed to keep it out. So there were a lot of balls hitting me on the pads in this innings, a lot missed down the leg side, and a lot of mistimed drives into the covers. But I hardly played and missed outside off at all, and there was maybe one shout for LBW which I'm pretty sure pitched outside.
Last night I dreamt of two different deliveries - the off spinner, the inswinger - each heading down at me, and how I needed to play them - in the first case late, just opening the hands with the turn, in the second case late again, stepping down the line of the leg stump and counter-intuitively playing through the line of the ball. When those movements are ingraining themselves on your subconscious and invading your sleep you know you're spending a lot of time at the crease in your waking hours.
I'm in form with the ball too. I know where to aim according to the movement - just outside off stump when there's some swing, firing it at the pads (I bowl from wide of the crease) with a little bit more action on the index finger when there isn't. There's no effort going into the stuff I send down - it's all about rhythm. It's at times like this that I'm not a crap cricketer. I feel I can face or bowl to anyone of any standard - and this weekend I pretty much have.
To bat well against decent bowling you need three things - experience, form and some base ability - and at the moment the three are coalescing. They have before - from about 2004-07, when I rarely put a foot wrong. I was a very different, more aggressive player, but the same sense of ease was permeating everything I did on the field. It went really wrong in '08 due to off field stuff. 09/10 went ok, but I was still finding my way back and averaging under 40 at a pretty average level.
It won't last. Of course it won't last - it never does. But that's why I'm glad I'm keeping this diary. Because when something lets me down - probably the talent side of things, but I'll be wont to blame it on form - I'll be in a pretty black mood. Then I can look back and try to remember how I felt on days like this, half glimpsed, in bright sunlight.
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