Still getting used to the intricacies of the new league, especially my fast favourite pre match ritual of getting the tape measure out and creating alien summoning crop circles on the outfield, Toss lost and we had the chance to bowl first.

It was a hot, dry day and without heaps of overheads to get the ball hooping, as we usually do so well, the bowlers all toiled away with tight spells and hard lengths. CRS was spot on with 9 through at the top, Aman hit the pitch hard and was well deserving of his 3fer across two spells, Azha bowled aggressively too. Lonnen was superb in the Plunkett role, super accurate for 9 straight in the second half of the innings and could have had more wickets had chances gone to hand.

New boy Dom Scott also impressed with his left arm whirly birds - even the oppo were purring over the smooth, rhythmical action, metronomic accuracy and all round aesthetic SLA shapes.

Wickets fell at regular intervals and despite some potential for tail wagging, including a sparkling cameo from their best bat, a 13 year old who came in at number 8, the plough contained Wimbledon to 186 in their 45, 9 down.

INCREDIBLE SPECIAL MENTION: James Barron took two absolute worldies fielding, both times matching speed across the ground with athleticism and balance, as well as his well documented ball control. Some boy.

Duray: 5 bowlers, 9 overs each, incredible cricket maths well done skipper.

In response, with the long summer evening rolling out in front of us, Sean whacked the first ball of the innings straight back over the bowlers head and we were off!

A couple of early wickets however enforced a bit of a ship steadying process for numbers 3 and 4, Canelo and Barron. The two dug in and slowly broke the back of the chase, keeping out a good amount of accurate bowling but both quick to pounce on the inaccuracies of a youthful and exuberant bowling outfit from Wimbledon.

A 100 partnership followed for these two garmin-wearing pals ( check the Strava for heart rate specific data on this partnership) however both fell in rather tame circumstances, caught playing poor shots with the score around 130, still needing 50 to win.

The tiniest whiff of a wobble followed, as messers Pretorius and Scott came and went in quick succession despite both having the power to finish the game off in a matter of moments, leaving ever reliable Stanley and Lonnen to eventually get the job done, reaching the target with plenty of overs to spare, 6 wickets down.

Overall I’d call it a 7/10 performance from the boys - bowled well, fielding some stunning some just ok, batting not bad not spectacular . A lot more cricket to come and potentially some tougher tests in this league — but nonetheless a really enjoyable day out with a great group.

Match report from Leo Connolly