Having chosen to bowl, trusting the pitch would dry out, Oscar and Giordy had a tough job of finding footing as the oppo staunchly refused to give us any saw dust. Despite their hardline approach, Oscar struck twice in 2 overs, with the old classic set up of a wide then attack the stumps. Giordy toiled with some tight lines too, narrowly missing the stumps on a few occasions.

Not wanting to let them settle however, skipper Davies decided to keep rotating the bowling, which would've worked to great effect if he could hold a ball that fell from the skies off of Niraj Tailor's bowling. The swirling winds and it dropping out of the sun can definitely be blamed for this one ;). Carl Viberg at the other end was just drying up runs, before getting a well deserved wicket as the ball swung inside the gate and knocked over the castle.

The run rate was high however, so we unleashed our secret weapon, Puff Jr. I don't think I've had so much emotion stirred in me from a Rohan since I last watched the Lord of the rings. Whilst it was entertaining watching their grown men run away, it was decided, after he'd taken 2 wickets, that it was best to not crush the opposition completely. Shout out to Carl Viberg taking a screamer of a catch at second slip as well off the pace.

Ihtesham came on and took over the mantle of our intimidator in chief, also ripping the ball through at several clicks faster than you would like on that sort of pitch. His 2 wickets, both through catches, were well deserved. He would have had a 3 fer if it weren't for a somewhat disputed front foot no ball call (unusually called after the catch was taken).

After some more tight bowling by Giordy that dried the runs up more, Oscar and Carl closed out the innings with some tight stuff, both taking another wicket, allowing Oscar to seal his 3-fer and keeping Carl's wicket tally for the season growing (deservedly).

With a delayed start to the innings due to half the oppo running off to McDonald's, a potential indicator of their criminally slow over rate, Hussain 'Merch' Selmi, and Hockings opened up. They raced us out to 50 in the blink of an eye, with Hockings launching some corking deliveries with absolute disdain, and the doctors patience paying off as he dispatched the poor stuff and kept out the danger.
Unfortunately, Hockings was bowled after a very entertaining 23. Rohan was unfortunate to get the ball of the day, an outswinging yorker that clipped off stump, on his second ball.

Jon Ryves and Hussain helped us build some stability before the latter unfortunately stepped on his stumps while hitting a 4. Ean joined Jon and looked in good touch, dispatching a 4 second ball up with a gorgeous pull. He followed up with a glorious cover drive that unfortunately hit the fielder in close for no run, before getting a ball that popped off a length and took his off stump.
Jon soon fell as well trying to up the rate as we lagged behind a little.

Skipper and Viberg in the middle, 90 runs needed to win. It would be a chase for the ages. I hit a couple of nice boundaries, saw out the good bowler and we were set up, before a stupid heave left me out in the cold, stumped.

Carl was running out of partners but did a stellar job of crawling us closer and closer. With 9 needed off the last 2 overs, it was edging towards an Edgbaston style finish. Unfortunately he popped one up as he looked to work it away to leg and their captain took a catch on the run to seal the loss.
The positives are that everyone contributed, everyone gave their all, and on a day where we lost we saw everyone grab a drink with some plough. One club to the end, we all leaned on each other and know we'll be back stronger. #ploughon

H x

Match report produced by Harry Davies