Posts
Loading ...I was driving from Poland to the south of France at the end of my cricket tour, and arrived in the doorway of my destination exactly one minute after the end of the match, having had no commentary or match updates en-route. I didn’t know whether to scream or jump for joy.
Jones! Bowden!
By Ian last year, mid-May Leave a comment on this post
Where were you for the Edgbaston climax in 2005? I was driving home in a car that only had FM, so I had to get updates from Michael Parkinson on Radio Two. Happily, the old cove would regularly interrupt his guests to give details, but all the same I missed the Jones!! Bowden!! Kasprowicz!! finale.
I mention it because I now know what it must have felt like to be Michael Vaughan that day. OK, so the stakes were a little lower in our South Cotswolds Division Three clash last Saturday, but the match situation was very similar. They were chasing 230-odd and we had them 190 for 9 with six overs left. Numbers nine and eleven at the crease. A formality or so we thought. But somehow, the ball kept missing the stumps and fielders, and we began to panic. Before we realised what had happened, they needed 11 to win off the last over. Still ours to lose, right?
A couple of good balls and a decent stop on the third man boundary brought it to eight needed off three, with the better batsman on strike. ‘Give him the single, lads!’ So we drop back five paces and he duly clips it to mid off. ‘Hold the ball!’ We now have the rabbit on strike and he needs seven off two. Game over.
But no! Wait! Mid-off has not held the ball, but instead he has slung it at the non-striker’s end. It misses by a yard and I fluff backing it up (it bobbled, honest!). They run a second. Six off two, with the better batsman on strike.
The next ball goes over cover’s head for four. Two to win, last ball. What do you do? Stop the single and win; or give them one and take the tie? Mostly we did neither. Some came in, some drifted, others minced about. Our heads were scrambled. How Harmison was even able to grip the ball, let alone bowl it, I have no idea! How Jones could have felt his legs, let alone move them!
I dropped in to a short-ish mid-wicket and the ball was chipped over my head for the winning two runs. Had I stayed where I was, it would have been an easy catch, with Richie Benaud crying out my name (in my head). Time will tell if I’m picked for next week’s match….
Tags: geraint-jones, michael-kasprowicz, michael-vaughan, south-cotswolds, steve-harmison |
14 Responses to “Jones! Bowden!”
May 10th, 2007 at 10.12 pm
May 10th, 2007 at 10.21 pm
I was with my kids in an adventure playground - radio clamped to ear and nails chewed to the quick. Pacing backwards and forwards getting more and more irritable by the second. Then suddenly…
Well - you all know the ending!
Ian, I’ve done exactly the same as you. Our situation was that scores were tied when the last ball was bowled, total rabbit at the crease. I was at mid on… sneaked in a few yards from where I’d been posted because I was convinced that I could stop the single. The batsman swun, and the ball looped over my leap. I got a fingertip to it and missed….
May 10th, 2007 at 10.43 pm
Ah, my heart goes out to you guys. I’ve seen this happen so often being a scorer. 
Edgebaston 2005, had a slipped disc, honestly. Was on a lot of pain medication, also 6 to 8 injections in the back each day, so many memories are a bit blurred.
Last year, my Bonn boys were in a vital run chase against Bochum CC with Rawan, our youngest, and Banda, our oldest, making a last wicket stand. R hit a swipe to deep mid wicket which smacked into the fence behind my head. Unfortunately , the umpire signalled a 4 not a 6, and by the Laws, with all my boys moaning behind me, I had to score a 4. That left us needed 18 from 9 overs, easy yes? You could hear Banda from the boundary, “stop that, you bloody fool! Rotate the strike! We can take it in singles!” When we needed 4 off the last 2 overs, the lad tried to go out in glory and was caught at long off. I will never forget it.
May 11th, 2007 at 5.04 am
If you hadn’t come in closer, he mightn’t have played the chip shot, Ian.
If I were you, I’d be grasping at such straws! 
And I’d rather not think about Edgbaston at all and I’ll thank you not to bring it up…..
May 11th, 2007 at 5.34 am
How Harmison was even able to grip the ball, let alone bowl it, I have no idea!
How? Well, from what I’ve seen since 2005 it was obviously a fluke.
May 11th, 2007 at 5.35 am
So was Jones’ catch.
May 11th, 2007 at 9.12 am
I was there, and I can honestly say that it was the weirdest but, emotionally, the best day (or more accurately, session) of cricket I’ve attended.
My brother decided not to go. He’d been to Day 2, and thought it’d be over too quickly to bother.
May 11th, 2007 at 9.43 am
Edgbaston 2005 - I was at a wedding in France. It was a boiling hot summer day, and all the girls were looking gorgeous in flimsy summer dresses. Not that any of the boys would have noticed - there were about 20 of us crowded round a single internet connection (dial up!) furiously pressing Refresh on Cricinfo.
I couldn’t stand even this couldron of pressure though, and was sitting in the shade under a tree with my head in my hands (where I’d been for about the last 3 overs) when a mighty roar let me know the unbelievable result.
May 11th, 2007 at 9.53 am
Edgbaston 05 — I couldn’t watch it. I went outside and hid behind a tree.
May 11th, 2007 at 10.20 am
I was at home watching it on the TV. With my girlfriend and her parents standing by the front door waiting to go out. As none of them have even the slightest interest in cricket, I could almost feel their annoyed glares in the back of my head!
When IT happened, I shouted “WE’VE WON!” very loudly (although in a very cracked and emotional voice), did a couple of laps around the lounge, and went out for lunch.
The 3 non-believers weren’t too chuffed I’d kept them waiting. And only time will tell whether they’ve forgiven me enough to let me marry their daughter!!
May 11th, 2007 at 1.55 pm
We were doing the bedtime routine with the kids and pretending not to care . . . Whenever it swung Australia’s way, I read the stories and my husband watched, then vice versa. Couldn’t watch the end though. I almost felt guilty for winning in the end, as one of us was going to be so cruelly denied.
May 11th, 2007 at 8.05 pm
I was at home watching in unfold. I started off on the sofa but ended up sat on the floor, with my dad on the other end of the phone for mutual support hardly able to speak.
The moment of relief at that catch will stay with me forever.
May 12th, 2007 at 11.00 am
I was in the small-but-tastefully-decorated-in-antebellum-style toilet of a room in a hotel in Charleston, South Carolina listening to Test Match Special on my laptop
via the hotel wifi. It was fairly early in the morning and I didn’t want to wake my wife. Circumscribed the essential pacing about a bit, though.
May 12th, 2007 at 1.46 pm
Playing at Clyst St.George, just outside Exeter, with scores being relayed from the pavilion. For some reason just about our only all-day game of the season and we ended up fielding first!
Comments
« Fatty Batter: How Cricket Saved My Life (Then Ruined It) | Main | Cricinfo launch match search facility »
