Get Lucky

Yorkshire Vikings 277-9
beat Leicestershire Foxes 246 all out off 49.5 overs
by 31 runs

Royal London One Day Cup
at Headingley

Monday 3 August 2015

Twitter @ball_sup

You make your own Luck in this game. But, I got lucky there. After a nice neat competent victory by Yorkshire, I headed to The North Bar in Leeds. I think it’s great in there. It turned out there had been a recent Tap Takeover by Firestone Walker Brewing Company from Paso Robles in California. So, the remnants of that were still on the Keg lines. Lucky break.

Firestone Walker, Pale 31 on keg at 4.9%. And, the absolutely mental Firestone Walker, Wookey Jack on keg at 8.3%. They bill it as a Black Rye IPA. I don’t know. Just the combination of flavours & high abv. I felt my head was spinning from the taster onwards. It was a serious beer. I’m a self-confessed HopHead. So, it didn’t knock me out in that way. Indeed, if anything I’d say it was underhopped for a Black IPA. Those sweet red fruit tones you get from the Rye malt were in there. That beefs up the richness. The abv hit was not the burning back of throat thing. Chewy, zingy, refreshing. A lot to recommend it.

A bit above par for the games I’ve seen recently (239, 265, 260). But, within that range where teams are slightly disappointed nowadays. Teams looking to push on towards 300 now. They lost the second wicket at 129 and the third at 198. It looked like they’d go higher at one stage.  But, most teams are capable of putting the brakes on at some point. Taking wickets does that.

Talking of making your own luck. Maxwell played a couple of very lofted legside shots. Not mishits. Not top edges. Just three-quarter shots in the air. He’s the top of what he does, but it looks a very risky shot to me. It doesn’t look like a mishit full-blood. It doesn’t look like a controlled chip. What’s he doing? Is he backing himself to get the right power on it to go over the infield? Is he backing himself to get the ball between catchers in the outfield? I suppose the point is, he’s backing himself.

The Foxes were up with it & one stage. Same point. Third wicket gone at 159. But, then they lose wickets & the brakes are on. Some long handled stuff at the end, with Yorkshire in control, meant it was not as close as 31 runs looks. Angus Robson got out in the 90s. If he’d stayed there, might have been different. Fisher just about the pick of the bowlers. They used 8 (eight). Fisher did 7 overs, 3 for 32 including two clean bowled.

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