Its still May and we’ve won a match. Strange times indeed. Cleverly losing the toss, Irv’s mind-games convinced Dartford’s skipper to give us first use of what turned out to be an interesting pitch and swift outfield. Dartford’s bowling attack featured some keen teens running in fast and a varied collection of spinners, some of whom bowled with orthodox actions…..
Louis looked good, but went first after one stopped on him, then Richie took over the role of the more attractive batter in his partnership with Irv. Sadly, Richie’s weakness, against straighter balls did for him, but not before he’d stroked a couple of sumptuous boundaries. Irv continued and now he was batting with Keeran, his decision-making reached its zenith (or nadir?) as he decided to reverse sweep the guy bowling googlies who he later reported might run through the lot of us. He did mange to get Keeran by bowling a poor ball which left Keeran saying – 1 metre either side of that fielder…….
Impressive debutant Jacob brought a much-needed left-handedness to our batting line up as he joined returning hero Rikin (plagued by shouts of Bonsai whenever he did anything (he’ll sell you a gorilla if you’re interested). After Jacob was ‘done by the bowler who was a cross between Hammer and Murali (the mind boggles), Jonny joined Rikin and we all sat, poised to clap the single that would take Rikin to his 50, when Keeran gave him leg before – a cunning move which empowered Dartford to give their own teammates out leg before later on. A typical Rikin knock, with his orthodox technique bring some lovely drives, some lofted had taken us up towards double last week’s total. Jonny and Dan eked a few more out, the Hammer joined Dan to tick things over a 1 an over from overs 30-35. Once Hammer had lobbed one to cover, Vitty took a turn but, alas, didn’t stay long, however, he and Dan did manage to up the scoring rate by intimidating Dartford’s young quicks into bowling a bunch of wides. Noah managed to ramp a slower ball and the Woodrow’s saw us through to 40 overs without losing our last wicket.
After tea (which was a pleasant throwback), the match hit fast forward. Dartford’s openers smacked Vitty’s first ball of the innings over long off for 6. He wasn’t hanging around but did survive that first over. Then Noah, with his first ball, found the magic spot on the pitch which accessed the underground tunnel, allowing him to clean bowl the other opener. His colleague managed a couple more, lusty blows before popping Vitty into Jacob’s safe hands at point and things calmed down a little. Vitty regained a measure of control and Noah’s spell was sound. Rikin came on and in a spell of variable quality found a lovely ball to remove Dartford’s skipper, caught Richie off a thin edge. Taking more pace off the ball, Jonny Nicholls came on a got their number 5 LBW (mainly thanks to Keeran’s earlier masterstroke) and then Irv brought himself on once Vitty was bowled out. The game was beautifully poised at drinks, with Dartford exactly half-way there and 4 down. However, with Jonny taking one in the over before drinks and then Irv getting one in the over after drinks, the break clearly favoured us. From there Dartford folded a little, with Jonny claiming another victim, Irv ending with four for including one absolute beauty that drifted away then ripped back in, a stunning reflex catch from Keeran (he has them), a smooth direct hit run out from Jonny rolling back the years and then the final wicket as our angry young man caught their angry Murali without charging in to take the catch.
A promising win with Rikin taking MOM but contributions from most of the team. Rikin also managed DOD, whilst the Dom Perignon classic champagne moment went to Richie for the cover drive pictured above and the Moet champagne moment going to Jonny for his run out. The Bonsai Gorilla moment of the match went to Keeran, whilst the Paytm Fair Play award went to someone but I can’t remember who it was! The newly minted Touch Cricket award for batting glide went to Rikin (hard to see another winner of this award this year), whilst Irv was overjoyed to win the Jonny Nicholls award for last wicket of the match taken with a leg spinner. The Hammer super spectator award, despite a huge travelling support, went to Phil Alger for correctly forecasting that Dartford’s batting line up wasn’t good enough to get 167 (sorry we didn’t join you Phil, we all rushed back to College Meadow to enjoy the last few overs of the 2s fantastic victory)
Next week we’re back at the Meadow looking forward to welcoming back the prodigal Atlas!