GCF Test no. 675
Match Report: Ko-oren in Teusland (2 of 3)
Ko-oren bat first
Teusland 414 (112.2 overs), 68/5 (20.5 overs)
Ko-oren 247 (86.5 overs), 231 (81.4 overs)
Teusland win by 5 wickets
The first match didn't end quite to our satisfaction. A loss by an innings to a new team (while not forgetting that we ourselves are only on our second season) and the players and the staff promised us that it was back to regular scheduling from now on. We have grown accustomed to a higher standard of play - but one Test is just that, one single Test. Everyone has a bad day, and teams can have collective bad days too.
Cue our surprise when the Greenblues were handed another big loss. Five wickets might not even seem like that much, but consider that Teusland needed all of 21 overs in their second innings to clean up the meagre lead that the Ko-orenites had built up at that point. On the one hand, twenty overs and five balls later, five wickets had already been taken, and that's pretty good. On the other, the first innings saw Teusland gain 414 runs, and we concede another long innings that our bowlers simply cannot break up. In the end, it's a game of 'seek the differences' between the previous result and this one. Ko-oren bat first, get an alright innings together, give away 410-odd runs, then get another alright innings to climb to a slight lead, only for Teusland to clean up the 65-70 runs needed to win. The only difference (spoiling the game of seek the differences a little bit) is that five wickets were taken in Teusland's second.
Ko-oren First Innings
Name R Out
E Stevenson 8 b Trenker
R Twaddle 42 b Trenker c Tausche
M Baldry 11 lbw Trenker
P Willis 49 b Lehner
Th Darknoll 65 lbw Schwarz
S yMharwn 21 lbw Lehner
G Wheelwright (wk) 9 b Von Sauerland
N Courtenay 12 b Riedl c Schell
H Marsden (c) 8 b Breuer c Kaplan
A Raycraft 0* not out
S Chesterman 9 lbw Lehner
Extras: 13
A slightly slow pitch was the backdrop to Stevenson's and Twaddle's opening stand, which stood proud for about 30 minutes or so. Twaddle, better against pace, was the one facing most of the early overs. Twaddle did a great job scoring a single run towards the end of an over, and Stevenson did a good job not scoring until the start of the next. Baldry had another bad innings, and consistent inconsistency is still consistency - though he got to his 11 runs very quickly. Willis stopped a spell of two wickets in three overs (Twaddle's and Baldry's), then paired up with Darknoll. Darknoll was key in this innings, the Edelweiss had a lot of trouble handling the left-handed all-rounder. Fielding assignments were missed and bowling angles were botched, and Darknoll took care of this with relative ease. Willis, meanwhile, worked with what the bowlers gave him and had fun pushing every single ball around off away. Willis had to be cautious, because the Edelweiss still knew how to handle a righty like him. After this, the two all-rounders shared a partnership before heading into the tail end consisting of wicketkeeper and bowlers. The scoreboard stopped ticking here and while the tail-end did an ok job at protecting the wicket, there wasn't much there and Marsden and Chesterman were sent back to the pavilion eventually. In a freak display of 'play enough matches and this will happen some time', Raycraft, who had been on the field before Chesterman, finished the innings at zero runs, not out. Masterfully avoided the duck.
By now, the three full-time bowlers on Teusland's team deserved some rest (while Von Sauerland and Riedl bowled a fair amount as well). The day ended slightly early, neither team looked very intent on starting Teusland's innings on day one. A lot of time was taken on Ko-oren's final two wickets.
Teusland First Innings
Name R Out
M Breuer 39 b Courtenay c Willis
K von Sauerland 15 b Marsden c Twaddle
A Tausche 94 lbw Raycraft
K Wimmer 92 b Darknoll
N Koller 47 b Darknoll c Wheelwright
S Riedl 45 b Raycraft st Wheelwright
L Schell 43 b Raycraft c Stevenson
M Kaplan 9 b Marsden c Wheelwright
E Lehner 0 lbw Chesterman
X Schwarz 5* not out
B Trenker 3 lbw Courtenay
Extras: 22
Von Sauerland still had some lingering problems after a few dodgy deliveries yesterday. He battted as normal, but his reflexes seemed off. Marsden pounded his bat with fast ball after fast ball until Von Sauerland just ricocheted the ball into the hands of Twaddle. The Edelweiss' veteran looked a little relieved that he could attend to his elbow and wrist for the rest of the innings. He couldn't know that the innings would be taking a while from here on out. Breuer was another fairly easy take for Courtenay, but then the Teuslanders held a batting clinic. Then, they all had the same jitters when reaching milestones. Tausche and Wimmer couldn't get the century, Koller, Riedl and Schell all couldn't get to the 50. These five players combined only needed 29 more runs to get to all of their 100s and 50s, and that's probably the only nasty aftertaste they had. Still, 321 runs between the five of them is a milestone by itself. After that, it was easy going from 6-for-hundreds to 10-for-hundreds, the tail-end adding 17 runs after the 321-run middle-order. Darknoll and Raycraft went to town when it came to taking wickets (and giving up runs, too). The pace attack kept runs down, but otherwise couldn't properly threaten the Edelweiss.
It was time for the Ko-orenites to take the victories of the easy tail-end wickets and score 300+ themselves. It was early on day 3, lunch wasn't even on the horizon.
Ko-oren Second Innings
Name R Out
E Stevenson 17 b Lehner
R Twaddle 11 lbw Schwarz
M Baldry 44 b Lehner c Kaplan
P Willis 10 b Riedl c Kaplan
Th Darknoll 45 b Lehner c Kaplan
S yMharwn 52* not out
G Wheelwright (wk) 18 lbw Trenker
N Courtenay 5 b Trenker c Breuer
H Marsden (c) 3 b Von Sauerland c Kaplan
A Raycraft 5 b Schwarz c Koller
S Chesterman 8 lbw Schwarz
Extras: 13
Baldry had a great innings now, what else is new. The ship righted itself in the sense that Ko-oren did indeed gained the lead to defend on the final four sessions, but it wasn't a lead that you expect to be able to defend. In short, Teusland should make short work of this (~ 1 session). Another thing of note was yMharwn's 52 not out, Darknoll again having a great innings, and Teusland's accurate bowling. Also, after involving their wicketkeeper on just one wicket in the first innings, Kaplan was on fire, catching out 4 Greenblues on this occasion. The innings didn't even take that long to complete.
Teusland Second Innings
Name R Out
M Breuer 10 b Marsden c Wheelwright
K von Sauerland 11 lbw Chesterman
A Tausche 0 lbw Chesterman
K Wimmer 0 lbw Chesterman
N Koller 32* not out
S Riedl 2 b Marsden c Willis
L Schell 5 b Raycraft c Baldry
M Kaplan did not bat
E Lehner did not bat
X Schwarz did not bat
B Trenker did not bat
Extras: 8
Teusland needed just 65 off this innings, and that's easy enough. They did make it very hard on themselves, but Koller was the man of the match just on the back of 32 runs. Chesterman made a very good case for man of the match, but 4 wickets total and 17 runs total might just be a little off. He was responsible for the most spectacular moment of the day, though: Ko-oren's very first hattrick. All he did was clean up the mess left behind by Marsden and Raycraft, and all it took was a few slower bounces for Chesterman to take out Von Sauerland and Tausche. Wimmer just came on for a single delivery - wanted to block it, completely mistimed it and a yorker slipped under his bat. For a second there, the Greenblues actually looked like defending their target. Koller made short work of that.
Congratulations to Teusland on the series win, but Ko-oren will challenge the third match. We just have to come out of this with a win. The team will place further emphasis on spin bowling, especially by lefties, and Wilkins will feature. Darknoll will be batting a little earlier, as he's having a great series, yMharwn a little later to stop any slide, yChaegrheodd replaces Baldry.
Order for the third match:
Stevenson, Twaddle, Willis, Darknoll, yChaegrheodd, Wheelwright (wk), yMharwn, Wilkins, Marsden (c), Chesterman, Raycraft
