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Sat. 21st July 2007
1st XI vs. Lohana (Home)
2nd XI vs. West Harrow (Away)
3rd XI vs. Edmonton (Home)
All abandoned.
4th XI (83) vs. Edmonton (84/1) Lost
(Away – 2pts)
Oh dear – not much to redeem ourselves with
this performance. I won the toss and decided to bat,
figuring that we needed the points, and 180 on Edmonton's
small second pitch should be obtainable for at least
10 points. The instruction was "not to bat
like twits" (or words to that effect). Les Clarke,
Shiraz Mohammed, myself and Niven Watley made it
to double figures but nobody really batted with any
application against the type of steady medium pace
and loopy spin attack you'll face any Saturday in
this league.
Edmonton, obviously, were keen to play despite the
rain and with the help of their tarpaulin cover and
plenty of pitch forking we went out for the last
twenty, hoping to pick up some wickets. Amit Bose
and Paul Sullivan bowled well, with Amit bowling
an opener and having the No. 3 dropped twice. Other
than that it was all over quickly.
It's hard to be positive after such a walloping but
here goes: our attitude is good in that we play fairly,
we're positive and we try our best. In the 1987 League
you often come up against cricketers of a certain
vintage who are canny operators and we can learn
from them: hit the bad ball (enough of them come
along); prize your wicket and bat to a plan; bowl
good lengths and to your field; and concentrate in
the field all the time. If we all try to follow the
above and try to attend practice, results are bound
to improve. While relegation from Div. II of the
1987 League may now be inevitable, Saturdays are
simply much better if you play cricket having competed
well … even if you lose.
DC
Sun. 22nd July 2007
1st XI (220/9) vs. Ickenham (200) Won
(Home – 4 points)
Our third win in the Chess Valley which should keep
us top of Div 2B. We batted our full allocation of
45 overs and were indebted to some key performances
with bat and ball. Having lost the toss and stuck
in, Randall Ramdeen went quickly, but Rohan Da Silva
dropped anchor to score 58 to keep one end going.
His first 30 runs occupied 30 overs, but he did a
great job for the side. Tharic smashed a rapid 37
and Alistair Wilson, batting at 8, took the initiative
away from the visitors late on, flaying them for
several 6s and 4s for 49*, from not many balls. We
took 100 off the last 14 overs to give us a chance.
After tea, Manan Banker clean bowled one of the Ickenham
openers early on, but his partner played really well
and should have scored a ton, but he had a wild slog
at Tharic and was bowled for 83. This was a key wicket.
Taz took 3-29 and Randall 3-41 to peg Ickenham back.
The Ickenham skipper took advantage of a bowling
change to give them hope, but Bagley (3-34) returned
for a second spell, to take the last two wickets
courtesy of catches by Ali and Manan in close. We
took seven catches in all, the best being Nicola
Wilson’s at mid-off, which was jubilantly received
by the watching women’s team, of course; we
were impressed too. New keeper Gary Law also had
three victims. Well done everyone. All in all, a
good game played in the right spirit against a decent
team.
NB
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