It's just like Vermont to provide the greatest summer weather once September arrives. Blue skies and cool temps prevailed as the Pownal Cannons won the toss in their first Captain's Cup match and put the Woodford Tornadoes in to bat. But the mile-high skies gave no insight to the horde of demons that lay waiting in the pitch below, and the first over saw Joe fall to the fast spin of Bhima. Woodford lost wickets in the next two overs, and after reaching 20 for 4 at the end of the fifth over, things looked shaky for the Tornadoes, Zander's 6 runs topping the scoreboard.
But no one knows the irregularities of Willow Park like our own Dr. Awkward, and David proved himself up to the task, this time with the bat. Surviving seven overs with a scrappy 13 not out, he held Woodford together until Mick arrived at the crease and together put 13 runs on the board in the last three overs.
40 runs seemed an easy target, especially with the stacked Pownal lineup - but after Mick bowled Peter off the third ball of the innings, David struck in the second over by having Bhima trapped plumb with one of his trademarked 'off-bouncers'. By the time Chris played all round a straight ball from Joe in the 5th over, Pownal was 11 for three and in deep trouble.The ball never really came cleanly to the bat for the last five overs, with only one boundary, two twos and six singles coming from the last thirty balls.
Barrie did well to survive 15 balls, but the six runs he added weren't enough as Kevin and Tony mopped up the tail, Malikowski taking two wickets with the final two balls of the match.
So for the third time, the team batting second has found the run chase too hard to get, and Woodford takes their first win of the Cup by 13 runs. David gets the Man of the Match award for his top score of 13 as well as his damned quizzical 3-1 in his two overs of bowling. (Can anyone explain this???? I mean, does his action just scare people??? How DOES he do it?!?!?!?!)
So after this week, the standings are thusly:
TEAM W L D Points Runs
Bennington 2 0 0 4 124
Woodford 1 1 0 2 89
Pownal 0 1 0 0 26
Shaftsbury 0 1 0 0 25
PS - if anyone can tell me who caught Matt in the final over it would be great. Please review these scoresheets so there doesn't have to be, ahem, a review session next week! ;)
