TORREVIEJA V LEVANTE II (LEAGUE)

Despite the mini storms the day before, Torrevieja was kind and a Sunny Sunday meant Levante II would travel down for their first ever match on a Flicx Wicket.

With many people unavailable Torre struggled to get 11 players with the absense of P.Michael and S.Khan both being in england and many to the slavery of work. But in the end Torre managed to field a full team out. The day started with K.Wood losing his first toss of the league and being asked to bat first by the Levante captain as an attempt to see how the wicket plays.

With the absense of regular opener P.Michael, a good change came in as former captain C.Darwin returned to Torre colours and picked up the bat with K.Wood. A solid start as C.Darwin looked to get used to his teams new mat whilst K.Wood found some early form and took the fight to the bowlers. 7 overs in and just as C.Darwin looked he had addapted to the new wicket, the wicket reminded him of the old curse and kept low for an LBW. A partnership of 29 got the team up and running. P.Harvey in at his useral 3 spot and allowed K.Wood to continue dominating freely but giving away a few chances that Levante couldnt capualise on. A full toss and some big eyes saw P.Harvey top edge a shot to third man for 10. R.Maini was in at 4 and saw it through to drinks with Torre 78/2 of 20 overs.

After drinks the boys continued batting through the overs with K.wood keeping R.Maini calm so he could continue placing the ball to the rope. K.Wood brought up his 50 in style with a 6 over the bowlers head. There was no sign in slowling down and a couple more boundaries followed the next over. Some miraclous fielding from levante at short cover saw K.Wood smash the ball hard and a brilliant catch finally saw skipper walk back to undo his pads. A knock worth 64 in 28 overs. 102/3. Couple of wickets fell as P.Singh at 5 was caught by another fine catch at long off and the next over R.Maini top edging a ball for the keeper to get under easily. A mini collaspe stabalised by no.6 N.Bapat and No.7 L.Gates who had 10 overs left with the score 114/5.

Sensible batting from the left handers nudging the singles pushed the score up quiet abit with the help of a few byes that ran away for 4. N.Bapat was finally dismissed bowled by some fine death bowling forcing A.Khan to enter at 8 who tried to hit some boundaries but couldnt manage bat on ball and was also bowled. Youngster C.Wood was in at 9 to assist L.Gates and the score had reached 149/7 with 2 overs remaining. 1 run needed for a 3rd and valuable batting point. A maiden over against L.Gates in the penultimate over and some great bowling forced the pressure of 1 run onto C.Wood. first ball a fine on drive to a fielder. 2nd ball and smash of a hit over covers for 1 run. 150 up !!! 4 balls remaining to try get some more runs but L.Gates could only manage a Leg Bye on the last ball of the innings. 

Torre Finished 151/7 of their 40 overs. Very similar score to the previous 2 league games at this ground. 

A good batting performance but would it be enough?? 

Torre took to the field and with S.Khan away the ball was given to C.Wood to open the bowling. Alongside R.Singh. some very tight bowling saw the batsmen trying their hardest to rotate the score and the 3rd over some great fielding by A.Khan saw a direct hit at the keepers end run out the opening batsmen. A great start for the boys and celebrations continued at C.wood got a wicket of his own by getting an LBW in his 4th over.

A change of bowler saw L.Gates and A.Khan come on but A.Khan being unable to find his line or length bowled 2 overs for 18 and was replaced by P.Singh. The 2 spinners kept the lines tight with L.Gates picking up his first League wicket with a nice LBW. A few loose delieveries here and there saw Levante put the ball away to the rope as the 4th wicket partnership reached drinks at 93/3 of 20 overs. Another roll of the dice brought R.Maini onto bowl but also had 1 loose ball an over punished to the rope. L.Gates bowled out saw N.Bapat come on and bowled steady, making the batsmen fight hard for runs. C.wood returned to the attack replacing R.Maini trying to defend 125/3 in 12 overs.

With the help of R.Singh who also returned to the attack. C.Wood bowled great lines and lengths as the batsmen could not buy and runs and got his prize when he clean bowled the N.5 batsmen sending the middle stump out the ground. His next over getting the No.4 batsmen caught behind who had knotched up a fine 52. R.Singh contributed the other end when he got the No.6 bat to top edge the ball for Keeper K.Wood to get under and take his second catch of the day. Suddenly the game was back on. 5 overs left and 4 wickets left. C.Wood with 1 over left defending 3 bowled a beautiful yorker and the whole team up in the air screaming for an LBW!!! The ball at the same time flying past third man 4. Umpire gave the decision not out and the 4 leg byes were given to see the game end in Levantes favor. 153/6.

A disappointing end to a good winning streak but nonetheless some great performances by some players. 

Could more runs have been scored in certain parts of our innings? Maybe.
Could some of our fielding been a little better? A couple catch chances put down and some judgement errors possibly? Could the bowling have been different? 

So many questions to ask and answer but we shall look forward to our next game and improve !!!! 

Unfortunately on a different note. Today was the last game for our friend N.Bapat, as soon, he will be leaving us to move to Norway. Good luck on your journies pal. You werent with us for long but we had good laughs and good times. You will always be part of the TorreTeam. GOOD LUCK PAL!. 

Next game we travel to La Manga Resort to face Pinatar Pirates II for a friendly. 12.00 midday start. Until then…… hasta luego ðŸ˜Ž

TORREVIEJA CC