Get to the ground and the pitch is a little green, but looks wonderful compared to the outfield. It's a hectic morning for some, with CRS feeling the after effects of the coffee, Ritik turns up in his whites and tells us he was out clubbing in Piccadilly all night andd Sean... More on this shortly.
The boys are here and we have the most competitive game of SEO ball in weeks. Duray leads the warm up, gates are opened, chickens are shoo'ed and heavy gates are closed.
Duray finally wins a toss and tells us we're bowling. He quickly realises he's actually won the toss and selected to bat first. But the bigger issue is our opening bat hasn't arrived. McGurn slept 8 hours last night but the wrong hours. So everyone moves up and Ange and Iqbal head out to bat.
The oppo are nice blokes for the most part and sledges are few and far between. The opening bowlers are skiddy, fair pace and take advantage of uneven bounce but both Plough survive both openers. At the end of the 10th over Plough on 50 finally get an actual sledge.
"50 from 10 and it's all been in edges" says their opening bat and admittedly best fielder. He's conveniently forgot Ange playing a pull the over before and the flush cover drive that went past him.
Iqbal gets out to what square leg later tells me was "(the 2nd change bowler) said it was the best ball he's bowled in his life". It was a good enough nut that even I couldn't complain. The bowler then doubled his luck and bowls Canelo, the ball moving through the air both ways according to Leo.
As the boys settle in to watch Ange and DomScott settle in to a partnership. Ange's better half talks about cricket and how she likes Saturdays cause she knows he'll be busy all day and she can get on with her things. She's in a sling and lamenting not being able to cycle.
Ange looks imperious and Dom was settling in nicely until he decides to clip one straight into the gut of square leg. Duray heads in from the sight screen on one of his walks. Duray is cool calm and collected, reminding Angus to keep a level head and cash in which he does scoring 80 from 107 balls.
A great highlight from this partnership, when the earlier chirper was bought in to bowl, and got a bit of tap from Duray, they thought he was done, but the skipper gave him another over at Duray with the small boundary - it went 4, 6, 4, 4, 6, . Taking Duray from 23 to 47 in the space of 5 balls.
McGurn comes in and puts on a great stint with Duray, the boys are running hard. Duray brings up his 50, it's been a gritty innings from the captain Sean goes after a quick 30 and Aman comes in and settles nicely, they try to give Duray the single thinking Aman was the better option to bowl at. Lol.
Dooz goes after a brilliant 55 and Tunna comes in for the last over. They bring the field in and Tunna launches 3 4s. Plough finish on 264-6.
There's a sea of beige for tea to the purring of the batters. We cash in on the train and head out to field.
CRS and Ritik to open. CRS as ever is on point from ball one, and Angus finally getting a chance with the gloves decides to stand up to him. The result is 9 overs, 2 maidens, 4 for 22 almost uninterrupted.
From the other end Ritik is a menace, he's bowling quick and more importantly back of a length. He snicks off the earlier sledger opening batsman who isn't given and doesn't walk, only to do it again the very next ball.
As a batter you're often looking for a bowling change, chances are things will get easier and the bowling won't be as good, at least in theory. But out first change bowlers are Aman Jain and Tunnacliffe, there is no soft bowling in this team.
After 12 overs the oppo are 54 for 6, CRS with 4, Ritika with 1 and Tunna claiming 1. Aman is his normal amount of impressive and takes 2 and wickets fall regularly with Barron and DomScott on as 4th and 5th change respectively.
We're looking at an early finish, or as early as it gets when the 2nd innings starts at 4:45. That is until the oppos number 10 walks in. Suddenly the swishing from the hips is replaced with a graceful high elbow and he begins chipping away at our mammoth target. Coming in at 10, your team on 129-9 to hit some of the best shots of the day he scored a gorgeous 62 taking the score to 190, but worse, keeping the plough on the field for another long long hour.
Until Duray, now a bit annoyed at being kept from the beers signals Ritik to warm up, it's 7pm and gloomy, and the skipper wants this bloke out. I walk past Ritik and tell him now is your chance to prove how quick you are following a spat at Thursday nets a couple of weeks ago. Ritik bowls quick and is bowling too well to get the edge but manages to get through the defences of the number 10 to bowl him.
Plough win by 74 runs.
There were so many great individual performances in this match that it's hard to pick one. But the best part of the day was how electric the plough were in the field. 1s never converted into 2s, 4s were turned into 2s and for 99% of the time the oppo did not run a single in front of anyone. With Barron and Tunna in the field you expect magical catches and both put on a show. Tunna going as far as making his catch off their number 3 look way more impressive than needed as his mum and grandmother (I think) were watching, only to find out they were looking at old holiday pics.
Showers were great and everyone got involved other than Ritik who presumably went back to Piccadilly to pick pick up where he left off from.
We stayed for cans with the oppo and they were a good bunch. Some of the boys head off home while others go to a Pakistani curry house in tooting.
Plough on!
Match report from Umar Iqbal