“Cricket is such a sport that you get to learn something from someone every day.”

Ravindra Jadeja

“I prefer not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble”

Jose Mourinho

And so the Plough took the field on the DSG nursery for the first "1st XI" game of the season, originally told we were facing Dulwich’s 3rd XI; though their captain arrived claiming it was more of a 6th XI. Was he playing mind games? Was he trying to spark a reaction from his team? His assertion was followed by a brief talk with Plough Skipper Leo, “let’s have a walk over to the pitch, have a little chat, then you can bat”. It was all a bit odd.

As the last few of their players slowly arrived just a few minutes before the scheduled start, Sean McGurn and Steve Britto took to the crease. Early indications were that there were plenty of runs on offer - McGurn hitting his first two balls faced for 4. Their openers were struggling for accuracy, and after 4 overs the Plough were cruising at 35-0. The fifth over opened in similar fashion, with McGurn pulling the ball for 4. His eyes again lit up at the second ball - short, slow and well outside off stump, so obviously he took the opportunity to smash the ball into extra cover’s chest. Of course, this was swiftly followed by a totally over-the-top send-off from the teenage bowler who had already been hit for 28 runs from his 13 balls.

39-1.

There followed a brief period of 3 overs that Dulwich appeared to start to take control again, as the run rate slowed slightly, with the pressure leading to Britto missing a straight one onto his pads just 3 overs later for only 2 extra runs on the board.

41-2.

Suri and Skipper Leo were now fresh at the crease. Suri very patiently blocked his first 12 balls before launching a 6, a 2 and two 4s. He swung at the fifth ball - perhaps there was the faintest nick? As the umpire at this point, it was very hard to say. Thankfully, given that Suri is an inherently honest, decent and reputable person who realises that there were young players on the pitch to whom a good example should be set, and that after all it was only a pre-season friendly and therefore only a total loser would cheat in a situation like that - he walked.

62-3.

At this stage, the Plough really needed Stanley and Connelly to steady the ship, and thankfully that’s exactly what they did. George looked solid and picked off the bad balls, while Leo was clearly intent on building a big innings. George Stanley eventually falling to Dulwich’s best bowler for a tidy 18 in a very useful 55 run partnership.

117-4.

Benny was in now and continued where George left off, nicely complimenting the captain who was now really tucking into the Dulwich bowling attack, reaching 70 before somehow falling to perhaps Dulwich’s least threatening-looking bowler, who in his over went for 14 runs, bowled our highest scoring batter, and was then immediately taken off without returning.

180-5.

Dulwich would have presumably been happy to see the back of the Connelly frying pan, but little did they know that they would soon be subjected to the Jahangir fire, with Boom Boom Tanoli dispatching just his 3rd ball most of the way towards the railway. At this point, Benny clearly felt his work with the bat was done and therefore very deliberately got bowled to give Aman a go with the bat.

196-6

From this point on, Aman and Jahangir set about tearing what was left of Dulwich’s 9 (nine) bowlers apart, with at least two shots from Jahangir threatening to increase the house insurance premiums for residents on Turney Rd. It was an enjoyable and explosive conclude to the Plough’s innings.

Plough 1st XI 319-6 from 40 overs

Tanoli 73* (44)
Connelly 70 (62)
Jain 46* (35)

Admittedly, Dulwich had plenty of ball retrieving to do, but I still can't quite understand how the Southbank game not only finished their tea but managed to bowl four overs before we even made it to ours! Anyway… with the express instructions to rattle through the overs and make some time back, Skipper Connelly threw the ball to sprightly young whippersnappers Puff and Walton to kick off the innings.

Requiring exactly 8 an over to win, Dulwich fell behind the rate pretty swiftly (and never really threatened to get anywhere near it, only managing to score over 8 runs in just 4 overs of their innings). Puff got off to a typically miserly start, and Walton recovering from a couple of wayward balls in his first two overs to hut back with a maiden in his 3rd. With the rate getting away from Dulwich, Walton found the first breakthrough, managing to summon a straight one to bowl their opener through the gate.

91-2, 97-3.

Whereas the Plough innings finished with a bang, the Dulwich innings dragged on with little more than a whimper. Azha started to find his range, and snuffed out any chance of a miraculous Dulwich runchase, with tidy spells from Aman, Jahangir, Cobbett and even a cheeky 2 over cameo from the Skip himself.

Haque 3-26
Jain 1-16
Jahangir 1-25