Cuddington Casuals vs MCCC 3rd XI
Saturday 31st May 2008
CCCC won the toss and decided to bat
MCCC won by 5 wickets
I'll be honest, this game was a long time ago. And to compound my misery, we didn't copy up the scorebook properly, so according to my records every single one of their batsmen was dismissed for a duck, but they reached a respectable total of 144 thanks to the worst keeping display in history by Vivek Sarohia, conceding every single one of their total in byes.
Let's try and piece this together, with thanks in part to the excellent Cuddington website. Bugger. They've not done a match report either, but I do now know that two of their batsmen scored 23 and 22 respectively. This brings byes back to a maximum of 99.
From memory, we arrived at the game with a mix of hope and trepidation. Last year one of their players took 150 off of us, on the way to a resounding thrashing. However, we'd started okay with three wins, a draw and a defeat from our opening five games. Having inspected the pitch, two things were apparent. 1) The tram line was well within slogging distance 2) The pitch was covered in seagull poo.
Toss lost and they chose to bat on what I think was quite a warm day. The usual opening pair started up and Raj took an early breakthrough thanks to a smart catch at backward point by Lumboo jnr. Lumboo himself was struggling with a back injury and took himself off after an opening spell of inexpensive garbage.
I think Richard replaced him and he bowled far better for far less reward. They had two very, very useful middle order batsmen. One had apparently scored 1,000 runs this season. This wasn't their exact words, but you get the jist. The other was a big West Indian man, who hit the ball a long way. Thankfully we kept him away from the tram tracks, so instead he mowed us through the covers into the biggest offside region I've ever seen.
Rich made the second breakthrough (probably) with another outstanding catch taken by David at backward point.
Andy A was introduced at some point and he bowled beautifully. Picking up figures of 4-13 from his 8 overs. I'm sure he had 4 slips and a backward point, plus a fly slip. Lumboo took a catch at second slip, having just moved himself there, but undid his good work by then swapping himself with Vikram who dropped one. Both of their good batsman were nailed by Andy, this left a prolonged spell where David and Girish tied down the tail (Girish picking up 3 more).
Eventually Brian returned from the other end and picked up the final wicket, to close them on 144.
After CURRY! for tea, we set about the run chase.
Raj was allowed to open the batting, because it's his birthday. Theo was his partner (so to speak). The pair were sent in to pinch hit! Hit out or get out! That's what they were told...
Theo was first to go, nailed stone dead by your correspondent. Theo remains the only person I've given out lbw in the last two years. If he keeps getting hit in front of middle stump by moon balls, that record will continue. 5 off 14 balls is not exactly pinch-hitting material, although it did include an awesome strike over long off for four. Raj departed soon after, caught by a small boy for ONE OFF SEVENTEEN BALLS. Sehwag was not quaking in his boots.
Hemant and Amit then took to the crease. Hemant had clearly settled in for the long haul, pushing singles here and there. My favourite moment was a late cut wide of the slips, after which Hemant ran the first run clearly shouting "Oh, that is a GLORIOUS shot". Hemant also managed to embroil himself in a running battle with one of their opening bowlers, not quite sure what started it, but Hemant's habits of hitting the ball to a fielder and calling "Only three there" or deliberately standing outside his ground and trying to goad the fielder into a throw didn't help matters!
Amit at the other end had decided to go for the train tracks. Watching Amit bat is incredibly stressful for a captain (or a cricket fan in general). It's like watching Flintoff or Pietersen. He's such a good batsman, capable of destroying bowling attacks and hitting any delivery for six. He's also capable of getting out at any moment, because he'll try and hit both good balls and bad balls for six. It's brilliant to watch. We saw both sides of him in this innings, losing two balls overs the tram tracks, sadly he fell immediately after the second six trying to repeat the dose and being caught plum in front by a dibbly-dobbly bowler.
Vikram came and went cheaply, leaving Girish and Hemant to bring us home. Hemant fell with 50 required and was given a hearty send off by the bowler he'd annoyed earlier in the day. Andy Allan brought us home with Girish, both players scoring at around a run a ball and Andy bringing up his own massive six. Girish registered his second fifty of the season just before the total was reached. We actually brought up the winning runs twice, due to a minor cock up with the scoring/scoreboard!
An excellent win and good to gain a small measure of revenge after a hearty pasting last year! Cuddington are a really nice bunch of guys and it was a pleasure to play against them.
Man of the match
Andy A for four vital wickets and a nice little cameo at the end. Girish is a close runner up and a mention for David's two excellent catches in the cordon.
Monty moment
Vik dropping a catch at slip. I think Vivek dropped one too, but can't quite remember.
Jonty moment
David's catches wouldn't have been out of place in a county game.
