After two amazing results, the Green and Blue have lost their first match. Tobiasia was too strong in Maynard. On the first day, the teams were very close. Tobiasia was all out before the end of the second session, and both teams were around 120 runs after day one. Ko-oren was looking far better by having only lost four wickets instead of all ten at this point. Halfway day two, Ko-oren was all out for 241, taking the first innings lead. All of the potential that Tobiasia had but never showed across the first two matches of the series was unleashed in the second innings. Six (a seventh 'played' without facing a ball) Tobiasia batsmen recorded 509 runs before finally declaring the innings after 219 innings. Now we are halfway through the fourth day and either the Green and Blue score 390+ runs, or they have to grind out the last day and a half for a draw. Neither goal was attained, clever Tobiasian bowling got all ten wickets after about a full day's worth of play, both teams retiring to the pavilion during the second session of the fifth day.
Where match two was short and featured a deciding victory for Ko-oren, the third match was very long. Tobiasia got all the revenge they could have wanted, defending the Full Member status with a resounding victory where the Tobiasians showed two faces: one where wickets fell about as quickly as previously, and one where we see the experience of a Full Member. Batting was excellent, and the bowling attack featuring so many different styles was rendered useless. Then the final day and a half was more than enough time to force Ko-oren to concede defeat.
With the third match, Ko-oren reach Associate Member status, a step up from Affiliate Member. At the same time, the Ko-orenite Cricket Association announced its First Class competition to double in size: the same six teams, but a full round robin of home-and-away series instead of the single round robin. The additional days of play will have a severe impact on scheduling, but the overall feeling is that it will again drastically improve the level of play. It will also open up spots for more paid players.
A series of three further home test matches have been announced, versus fellow Affiliate-to-Associate Member the Plough Islands. Before these are played, however, we are off to Darmen to face our eternal rivals, and let's hope a rivalry develops that is on par with the other rivalries between Ko-oren and Darmen in other sports. Darmen have lost their 3-match series against Mattijana 2-1, and the Plough Islands have won their series against Lisander with one win and a draw. For now, the team will take a three-matchday break until round 7.
As far as individual effort is concerned: in the first innings, Nihart started off well for Tobiasia, taking both openers' wickets. Blake, however, picked off most of the tail-enders. Ko-oren's bowling was splendid, though Marsden was lucky to take his only wicket of the innings when he did, he was getting slapped around until that point. He gave up a third of all runs that innings, despite bowling fewer overs than his colleagues. Raycraft had a field day out there, giving up just two runs per over and taking four wickets in the process. When batting, every player kept the scoreboard turning to about the same ratio. There was no player getting a disproportionate portion of runs, and only Raycraft failed to get any runs at all. Baldry will surely repeat the sequence of his wicket falling in his nightmares a few times, very disappointing to barely last more than an over given his performances in the first two matches. Stanway was not up to par either. yRheighewn has established himself as a solid middle-order batsman, turning the innings upside down on his own, scoring a century and almost half of all Ko-orenite runs. Treadway comes close to a 50, but that is it.
First Innings
Player Out R B 4 6 SR
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yFhireath lbw Nihart 15 30 1 - 50,00
Stevenson b Nihart c Harra 9 22 1 - 40,91
Stanway b Blake 5 12 - - 41,67
yRheighewn b Irvin c Delean 105 198 13 2 53,03
Baldry run out 3 8 - - 37,50
Treadway b Nihart c Blackvon 44 108 9 - 40,47
Marsden lbw Blake 10 30 - - 33,33
Meredith b Blake c Blackvon 2 7 - - 28,57
Black* 21 51 2 - 41,18
Raycraft b Blake 0 3 - - 00,00
Harvey lbw Harrison 2 16 1 - 12,50
Extras: 0 B, 5 LB, 10 W, 10 NB, 0 P (25 total)
Player O R W
Harvey 12 33 2
Raycraft 10 20 4
Black 11 25 3
Marsden 9.5 34 1
Treadway 3 12 0
Sloppy bowling provided 29 extras, but even that couldn't save the Green and Blue. No bowler truly established themselves comfortably at the crease, the top and middle-order a mixture of unending defensive shots, and then, cheaply giving up wickets. And by unending defensive shots we mean that this was by far the least scoring innings so far. After yFhireath and Stevenson combined for 8 runs on the first 4 overs, Stevenson was the first to fall. A slower ball mixed in was hit for an edge but barely deviated from its original path, easily taken by Blackvon. Stanway fell next, much like in the first innings, to Blake. This time, however, Stanway went out for a duck after surviving three full overs! After this, Ko-orenite batsmen made it a mission to stay in as long as possible to maybe grind out a draw. Starting with yRheighewn, who took this to heart immediately, then Baldry and Treadway, together they lasted for half a day at, but did not get many runs together at all. Getting runs was long abandoned as the main strategy for this innings at this point, after all. yRheighewn tried to lift the ball up and over him and the wicketkeeper, behind him was nothing but grass until the boundary. He couldn't get any lift on the ball and Blackvon was almost too surprised to take the catch. Baldry must be questioning his play after his second poor innings, Nihart had him in his sights all day, and ultimately his final shot was caught at midwicket. After Treadway, the bowlers at the tail-end were doing their best to stay standing. They went through at least another half-day. Meredith got quite a bit of contact on the ball but not as intended, and got caught out at cover. Black finally gave the slips something to do: before him, all went out by hitting deeper balls. Tobiasia kept three to four slips on all bowls, and it finally paid off. Raycraft and Harvey had one hell of a final stand but Blake bowled straight for the off stump and got Raycraft out cleanly.
On the first part of the second innings... wow. No Ko-orenite bowler gave up 100 runs, but they should have been happy with the declaration, all things considered. Tobiasia could have let this one go on for days, scoring 1200 runs at the least, if they didn't care for the final result. The openers bowled over 10 overs each, to illustrate just how long this innings was. Black nearly bowled a full ODI innings by himself. Harvey and Black, and Marsden and Raycraft came close to it, bowled both innings of a T20 match each. All that for just five wickets. This one is painful.
Second Innings
Player Out R B 4 6 SR
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yFhireath b Irvin 14 20 2 - 70,00
Stevenson b Nihart c Blackvon 2 8 - - 25,00
Stanway b Blake 0 18 - - 0,00
yRheighewn b Blake c Blackvon 28 92 3 - 30,43
Baldry b Nihart c Harra 17 59 2 - 28,81
Treadway lbw Harrison 30 93 3 - 32,26
Marsden lbw Harrison 15 39 1 - 38,46
Meredith b Irvin c Delean 11 47 1 - 23,40
Black b Harrison c Harra 22 55 2 - 40,00
Raycraft b Blake 15 50 1 - 30,00
Harvey* N/A 21 80 2 - 26,25
Extras: 2 B, 6 LB, 13 W, 8 NB, 0 P (29 total)
Player O R W
Harvey 43 82 1
Raycraft 38 75 1
Black 44 87 1
Marsden 39 80 2
Treadway 28 67 0
yFhireath 15 60 0
Stevenson 12.3 58 0
Commiserations to Lisander, but thankyou so much for being the first to offer me a match before I had even come up with much and good luck for the rest of the series.
Willowbourne
Greencaster
Mawryshire
West Surbourneshire
East Surbourneshire
