The Plough had set out to Richmond to take on Cricketers CC. We were very lucky to get a game as it was pouring down the night before so a big shout out to cricketers CC for having us over.

We were welcomed by bit of a crowd in the public park and a whole lot of noise from those watching the rugby in the pubs! Skipper AJ Prasad won the toss and decided to bowl first in the hope that the damp pitch would dry up as the day goes on.

Giordy and Carl opened the bowling and kept it very tight on a pitch that didn’t seem to be the kindest to seamers. The spin duo of Sam and Niraj then came to work their magic. Niraj was the first to pick up a wicket, batsman tried to smash a massive one over long on but went straight down the hands of ‘sexy hands’ Sully (more on this name later). Niraj then quickly followed up with a brilliant caught and bowled diving to his right, ‘surely this was the catch of the day’ we all thought. Sam pushed through and hang in there despite the batters taking him on a little and came through with two important wickets one caught on the boundary by Simon Crane and the other taken by Sully in extra cover. ‘Sexy hands’ Sully and Aj shared a lovely spell that stopped the run flow and got us more wickets! Sully took all three, a Lbw, one caught by Viberg and the last one needs a paragraph of its own.

Not to be dramatic (I am going to be dramatic because this deserves it). Sully stands on his bowling mark, takes a deep breath, looks around the field and an air of mystery and excitement eludes us all. I from deep point see the sweat beads on the batsman’s forehead. Sully runs in jumps to crease and lets a leggy rip the batsman middles it straight back 2 feet over sully’s head. Surely this is a 4. Nope. The mad man jumps two feet up, Michael Jordan sort of airtime and with one hand grabs the greatest catch I’ve seen live on a cricket field. I’ve not slept since seeing that catch.

Match report from AJ Prasad

The oppo finish on 200.

Unfortunately, our batting could not be as spectacular as that catch. Our openers fell quickly, not doing much for the chase. Apart from Bharat, who scored a brilliant 35, and Sully, who got 43, none of us were able to really make much of an impact and we got bowled out for 98.