League match, Moseley won toss and opted to bowl
Kings Heath 155 for 6 in 20 overs
Louie Turpie ct keeper 11
Josh Baker lbw 2
Umar Rehman 51* (retired)
Naweed Uddin run out 50
Luke Baker run out 6
Ben Rattley ct keeper 0
Hassan Farooq 7 not out
Chad Atkinson caught 0
Omar Dawood 0 not out
Did not bat: Jei Diwakar, Tom Boyce
Moseley 123 for 6 in 20 overs
(Naweed Uddin 4-0-24-1, Umar Rehman 4-0-13-1, Omar Dawood 2-0-18-1, Hassan Farooq 3-0-28-0, Luke Baker 4-0-19-1, Ben Rattley 2-0-14-1, Tom Boyce 1-0-6-0)
KINGS HEATH WON BY 32 RUNS
Points gained: Win 4, Bat 4, Bowl 3
Moseley began their chase of 156 cautiously, Naweed bowled a good length outside off stump and proved difficult to drive, and most of the runs he conceded were through third man. Hassan fielded superbly at backward point diving low and stopping hard hit cut shots when the length was a touch too short. With encouragement from the coach, the team decided to go “IPL style” and open the bowling up the slope with Umar, an off spinner. This worked better than expected as the Moseley opening batsmen were obviously used to starting their innings against pace and struggled to score, another contributory factor was the placement of Luke Baker at short midwicket that prevented any quick singles dropped into the leg side. The change bowlers Omar Dawood, Luke Baker and Ben Rattley continued to offer good control with Moseley now chasing in excess of eight per over, the boundaries were restricted, all collecting a valuable wicket apiece. However the introduction of Hassan Farooq into the attack got nerves jangling; his length was all over the place in an erratic first over and after bowling several high no-balls he was withdrawn from the attack as his three overs went for nearly thirty runs. Tom Boyce was called upon to bowl the final over with 39 runs needed to win. There was very poor light due to the extraordinary length of time it took Moseley to bowl 20 overs (two hours) and Boyce was warned by the umpire not to bowl fast due to the bad visibility and potential danger to the batters. Tom attempted to bowl slow spin however was promptly called for two wides from the astonishingly inconsistent umpire. When his third delivery was hit to the cover boundary he was instructed to bowl normal speed again: as the batsmen were obviously seeing the ball well enough, and no further runs were conceded from the over securing victory by an eventually comfortable 32 run margin. This secured the Kings Heath side runners up position within the Under 14 Division despite being in first place on the deadline day. (Dorridge were allowed to play four fixtures after the Warwickshire ‘play by’ date and finished winners).
The Kings Heath preparation for the match was somewhat disrupted when the Moseley coach insisted that the cricket balls offered by the home size were too big; following closer inspection of the rules it transpired that Kings Heath were correct and a full size adult ball should be used at Under 14 level. It soon came to light that swing bowler Louie Turpie, Warwickshire U15 B and Kings Heath captain was carrying a back injury and therefore unable to bowl. This was a big blow for the home sides’ chances against a strong Moseley batting line-up. The presence of a neutral umpire was welcomed, however a series of seemingly random decisions and inconsistent interpretation of the ‘wides’ rule ensured that both teams felt aggrieved at the conclusion of the game. It should not be suggested that the umpire was incompetent, but if every individual decision was scrutinised under the URDS system then the vast majority would be overturned. Kings Heath were batting first and the coach ensured that the team were targeting a big score, especially with such a strong batting order all eleven of whom could contribute runs.
The two Warwickshire U15 B boys Louie Turpie and Josh Baker opened the batting together for Kings Heath – only the second time they had done so for the Under 14s. The first occasion was against Knowle and Dorridge and resulted in a spectacularly inept run out from the second ball of the innings, Louie Turpie hitting the ball directly at square leg and calling for a single, both batters standing helplessly in the centre of the pitch as the stumps were broken. Both boys had produced superb individual innings during the season (having identical high scores of 42) but had thus far failed to replicate individual successes into a meaningful partnership. The partnership was not given any time to develop as Josh Baker was soon triggered leg before wicket by the umpire to a half hearted appeal from the deep fine leg fieldsman. It should be noted that this delivery pitched short of a length on leg stump and in the absence of swing was continuing on that line down the leg side - had there not been an interception from the batsman then the ball would have been called wide. The ball hit the batsman on the pocket of his left leg, high up on the thigh pad; he was also well back on his stumps after correctly interpreting the (short) length of the ball. For a few seconds after the umpire raised his index finger to uphold the optimistic appeal and confirm the dismissal there was a stunned disbelieving silence from everyone on the pitch and all the spectators. Moseley suddenly found their voice, celebrating neither a good delivery nor a batsman error, but a clear cut, blatant mistake by an umpire. On such decisions entire seasons can be defined, and the underlying message about the Kings Heath season was ‘recording victory after overcoming adversity’. Louie Turpie soon followed Josh back to the pavilion for only 11 runs after trying flick a ball off his hip and being out caught behind. The ball itself came off the thigh pad before being caught by the wicketkeeper down the leg side; Louie stepped back from the stumps as batters are prone to do whilst awaiting a decision following a loud appeal, and the umpire took this as an admission of guilt and again pointed his index finger at the cloudy skies above. The injustice of it all was destroying the teams’ morale and at two wickets down in fewer than four overs the pressure was mounting, mental recalculations of a par score were taking place by both coaches. However Kings Heath shouldn’t have worried, in form batsman Naweed was coming to the crease with Umar Rehman and this pair traditionally bat well together, using the pace and deflecting the ball into gaps behind square on the offside. They took the score past one hundred before Naweed on 48 pushed a single into the covers leaving him tantalisingly poised unbeaten on 49 at the non strikers end. Umar was also in his forties and was now on strike - he stroked the next ball straight to mid off and called for the single. There was never any chance that either batsman could have made the 22 yards without being run out, barring a fielding error. Umar took several steps down the pitch before realising his mistake, but Naweed was by now fully committed to the single and by the time he had turned and tried to make his ground the stumps had been broken with the batsman a yard short. There was an agonising delay before the umpire raised his finger for a third time to confirm the dismissal. Before his run out Naweed had been averaging 170 with the bat, an indicator of not only his supreme run of form but his contribution to the team. As Naweed began his slow walk back he removed his helmet and glanced at the sky, whilst the watching supporters from both sides rose as one and clapped his achievement despite falling one run short of a notable milestone it was a fantastic innings which brought Kings Heath back into contention. Umar reached his fifty the following over and had to retire to the sound of another surge of applause from the Kings Heath team.
The onus was now on quick runs and several Kings Heath batsmen fell for the good of the team. Luke Baker was the second run out of the innings, slow on the turn whilst attempting a double to the third man boundary, but should be commended for his sacrifice. Ben Rattley, in the unfamiliar position of number six tried to scoop the ball over the slips and keeper for runs but unfortunately got height rather than distance on the shot and the wicket keeper took a good swirling catch. Chad Atkinson was making his Under 14 debut but could only succeed in offering a catch to mid off for a duck from the penultimate ball of the innings. Hassan was unbeaten for seven and Omar had the pleasure of walking to the non-strikers end with one delivery remaining of the innings. The team proved themselves extremely capable of setting and defending a total for the first time in the season during their final match. Moseley were under pressure throughout and were unable to break the match defining partnership between Naweed and Umar which eventually sealed the result which was the fifth win of the season.
