As expected, the Liventians made some changes to their XI, after their second collapse in three seasons. Injuries give them some excuse, but even with eight players they ought to last more than 25 overs and score more than 80 runs. Although I had thought Liventia would change some players around in the order and swap some out, captain Kerr went much, much further than that. He resigned as captain mid-series, and now Edwards will bear the heavy burden of captaining a squad that always carries very high expectations. Kerr's first task will be survive the series with Finch and Millbank still out - and that means that Liventia are down to one opener. All the full-time bowlers are still unchanged, but Kennedy (bowling all-rounder) is now in over MacMaster (also a bowling all-rounder). There are a lot of changes to the first six on the list, however. And we can only say that Edwards has done a fine job in his first match as a captain.
GCF Test no. 662
Match Report: Liventia in Ko-oren
Liventia bat first
Ko-oren 266 (46.0 overs), 255 (59.4 overs)
Liventia 549/4d (186.5 overs),
Liventia win by an innings and 28 runs
Series drawn 1-1
You read that right. The series ends with two wins by an innings, one for each team. This makes it harder to name a clear moral winner in this series, but winning by an innings and 149 is better than an innings an 28, so as a completely unbiased Ko-orenite reporter, I think Ko-oren comes out slightly better. Liventia opened again and, like in the first match, they had an excellent first innings. Just in this case, that first innings was about 2,5 times as long. Ko-oren had no bad first innings score-wise, but going for just 46 overs is a bit short - and by far not enough to prevent a follow-on. Edwards now had a fun decision to make - would his bowlers still be fresh enough after 46 overs, or is there enough time to bat and still get the Ko-orenites out a second time? By this point, only two days and two sessions had passed, but Edwards still decided to enforce the follow-on. It turned out to be a great decision, the Green and Blue had no answer again, and ended up on nearly 60 overs (an improvement) and 255 runs (a decline). The series ends 1-1, which is easily a result any Ko-orenite would have been happy with before the start of the two matches. Liventia remain the best Test side in the Multiverse, Ko-oren climbs up to 5th.
In a windy Royal Oval, under a threatening deck of clouds, Finney and Hennessey opened for the visitors. Given the weather, the old adage says that swing is a good option, so Courtenay and Marsden took care of the first dozen or so overs. With the swing and the bounce of a new ball, as well as the unfamiliar pitch, the situation proved too much for Hennessey - opening might not be his thing. He tried to deflect an innocent looking ball from Marsden, but it did have some curve on it and struck him on the pads somewhere around off stump. Marsden was so sure of his case that the decision went upstairs, and our captain was proven right when the call came back: OUT. Finney had a much better session, now partnering with new captain Edwards. Finney picked his battles, had some frustrating overs of blocking 5 balls and seeing the sixth one barely making it to the infield. The few times he swung, he was lethal and hit gaps between fielders on multiple occassions. Meanwhile, the sky opened up and Raycraft and Chesterman were also included in the proceedings. Edwards, more focused on his partner's play than his own, lost his wicket on the first over he faced a spin bowler. Bérenger came on and he wouldn't leave for a while. Finney slashed the ball up and somewhere towards cover, an easy catch for Darknoll even if he had to run for it. Bérenger and Kerr were now on, putting together a partnership of 100, 110, 120... but Bérenger got greedy - on 157, so it wasn't like he didn't already have a massive innings. As the day rolled on, the all-rounders were involved in bowling - and Darknoll had a few slow overs where he couldn't apply spin, then hit one perfectly and got a millimetre of leg stump. Bérenger moved over to the middle of the wicket, preparing to hit this one over the rope, and he had no chance of hitting this one. Kerr and Reynolds then had a spell that couldn't be broken by Ko-orenite bowling. Day two ended and Liventia would still be batting at the start of day three.
The day started with the duo continuing where they left off the day before, but before long, the grey clouds stopped being just a threat and actually started interfering with the match. It started with a drizzle, the covers came on. The rain spell lasted for just 12 minutes, but in this time the drizzle turned to a downpour and then stopped as suddenly as it began. The pitch was safe, but the outfield now had some very different qualities and Edwards decided this was as good a time as any to declare the innings. Kerr had a small objection as he wanted to reach the 150, but the captain's word was final and it was an interesting discussion between the ex-captain and the new one. Things never got heated, the two talked it out and that was that.
Liventia First Innings
Name R Out
MA Finney 85 b Courtenay c Darknoll
DA Hennessey 7 lbw Marsden
DHJ Edwards 23 b Chesterman st Wheelwright
PJA Bérenger 157 b Darknoll
OH Kerr 139* not out
E Reynolds 117* not out
MQ Sarrin did not bat
JFM Kennedy did not bat
JPK Adams did not bat
SV Finney did not bat
RPT De Cerci did not bat
Still sitting on cloud nine from the first match, the Green and Blue hoped to match Liventia's score, and to do so quickly. Stevenson and Twaddle once again led the order after the rain cleared up, Adams and Finney alternated overs early on. The batsmen had no trouble starting up. They took risk whenever they thought the ball wasn't going to hit the stumps, either letting it pass by (even when it was too close for comfort and the ball barely missed the stumps) or placing it right in the gaps in the infield. Marsden told them to rear up the scoring, and they did. All through the innings, the Ko-orenites were helped by some wildly inaccurate bowling, with plenty of wides and no-balls. Baldry is inconsistent as is, and here he displayed that again: the first match he scored 156, today he managed three. That was the first omen that things were going to be bad. Willis, Darknoll and yMharwn (and especially the latter) salvaged things, and if the tail at least managed their normal batting averages, things would be fine. Then, Wheelwright, Courtenay, Marsden, Raycraft and Chesterman collapsed for a total of 18 (and 10 extras). And it wasn't pretty. At least they spread out the wickets, and they never gave up two wickets in the same over. They did make the Liventian bowlers fight for it, but even then. Wheelwright swung, clean bowl by Finney. Courtenay tried to block and got spun by De Cerci. Marsden took his time, lasted 23 balls but Kennedy took off-stump off him. Chesterman at least added some runs before it was Raycraft's turn at bat again and he was easily dismissed for a duck.
Ko-oren First Innings
Name R Out
E Stevenson 54 b Adams c Reynolds
R Twaddle 43 b Finney c Bérenger
M Baldry 3 b Finney c Kerr
P Willis 38 b De Cerci c Sarrin
Th Darknoll 26 b Adams c Sarrin
S yMharwn 50 lbw Kennedy
G Wheelwright 4 b Finney
N Courtenay 0 b De Cerci
H Marsden 5 b Kennedy
A Raycraft 0 b Kerr
S Chesterman 9* not out
The second innings was worse run-wise, but better over-wise. Still, Ko-oren was all out, twice, in one day and a session. It was a completely different Ko-oren team on the pitch, though. Stevenson and Twaddle went out on attempted sixes, caught in the only place where Liventia stationed an outfielder. Hennessey on the first occasion, Bérenger on the second. The batsmen had their first innings and thought they could repeat it, forgetting that the Liventians now had a file on them. After that, Baldry had another opposite innings to his previous one, going for 94 runs. He started a small tradition of going out without getting barely anything on the ball: top edge to the wicketkeeper. Willis and Darknoll didn't help us getting back in the match. Willis misjudged a yorker on his first ball, Darknoll lasted a little longer but was struck on the plant leg a full 15 cm away from where he put his bat. yMharwn and Wheelwright had a decent outing together, but also fell to Sarrin's ruthless gloves.
Some rain delays later, the innings picked up with just the bowlers left to defend our honour. Courtenay had no business lifting the ball - he tried to avoid the wet and slow outfield - and it was an easy catch for Finney (the opener). Marsden and Raycraft looked like setting up a tail order stand, adding about 40 runs, so they succeeded in that. It was far too little, far too late, and they couldn't force Liventia back on the field for their second innings at all. Swing got the better of Marsden, while Raycraft stayed on to pair up with Chesterman for all of about 3 minutes. Adams was on a roll and got his 5-for.
Ko-oren Second Innings
Name R Out
E Stevenson 9 b De Cerci c Hennessey
R Twaddle 18 b Finney c Bérenger
M Baldry 94 b Kennedy c Sarrin
P Willis 0 lbw Adams
Th Darknoll 15 lbw Finney
S yMharwn 23 b Adams c Sarrin
G Wheelwright 28 b Adams st Sarrin
N Courtenay 0 b Adams c MA Finney
H Marsden 17 lbw Adams
A Raycraft 20* not out
S Chesterman 0 lbw De Cerci
That's it from the Liventia series! Ko-oren will be back shortly, visiting Teusland on a 3-match series. Marsden has some work to do in limiting the inconsistency. Either someone matches their average and then some, or they disappear for nearly nothing. How good the first match was, how bad the second was. Bowlers can't take wickets and rely on suppressing runs and frustrating batsmen - how long can that work for? A great win over the Multiverse's best team was a great start, but the second match takes nearly all the good things from that first match away. What team will we see in Teusland?