<Insert one-handed typing joke here>

I had one of my best and worst days of cricket on Saturday.

I finally managed to get my bowling run-up correct without an obscene number of little stutter steps. (note - some of this post may have super cool cricket lingo).

I was given the ball while is still had a good bit of shine on it and I was swinging it a looong way - pitching outside off stump and swinging into the right hander. I was pretty stoked with my first ever wicket - a catch at mid-off. On the first ball of the next over I delivered a wicked outside off pitching ball which swung all the way back to take out leg stump. The very next ball I did basically the same thing which the batter took on his pads. It's usually pretty hard to get someone out LBW in our games because the umpires are members of the batting team, but this one was so plum there was no way he could refuse it. I didn't get a hat trick, although in my next over I had another catch at mid-off identical to the first.

My final figures were 4 for 33 runs off 8 overs. The rest of the team didn't do so well - the other team finished up with 253 off 40 overs, so we would need to score more than 1 run per ball.

What was not so good was my catching. I dropped 2 very long but quite straightforward catches. The latter actually fractured my left ring finger. I didn't realise at the time thinking it was just a sprain, so I had a bat at number 4. Normally I don't bat so high up, but I figured I could play pretty recklessly and make it short and sweet so I could head off to A & E for my finger. I scored 13 runs (3 fours) off about 7 balls, so that wasn't too bad.

While waiting in A & E with Claire (approx 3 hours before a doctor saw me) I found out that we'd managed to pull off a spectacular win, chasing down 254 with 5 overs to spare. Our batters 5 and 6 scored 86 not out and 61 not out respectively.

Meanwhile, I had an x-ray done showing some strange chipped/compressed bone action going on in my finger. I now have a stylish cast up to my elbow and I'm booked in for surgery on Thursday. Apparently they need to set things correctly now or I could end up with a stiff joint.
(Dad, just so you know, it's the same finger I sprained when you did your achilles)

The doctor said I was very clever taking my ring off immediately after the impact, or they would have had to cut it off. When he first said that I was extra pleased that they didn't have to amputate my finger - of course he meant the ring.