Tunnacliffe has been an outstanding recruit that has had an immediate impact in every game looking back as far as early last season when he made his debut on Hackney Marshes "winter wonderland soil".

As a "clairefontaine" of Hampton a.k.a Old Hamptonians CC, GT exhibits high quality cricket in all departments concerned. This is complimented by his conviviality off the field e.g. post game beers at the DSG.

As the "Balearic" blaze basked all corners of DSG, we eagerly awaited for kick off at 12.30pm which was looking parlous owing to the tyranny of distance for much of the visitors' x1 generally hailing from the boroughs of Brent and Hillingdon based on small chats with a handful of them in the game which ensued.

Whilst the visitors made their way progressively, GT went round to individually brief the bowlers what the plans were for our 40 overs in the field. In these digital times where everything is supposed to be at a touch of a button, it was rather refreshing to see our skipper's work behind the scenes putting "vapour on the paper". Every bowler was given clarity on their roles over 40 overs which boded well as we looked to post a solid total.

Nealon Francois and Harry Davies opened up the proceedings. The former, is a recruit courtesy of DJ Rick and exhibits effervescence and swagger both on and off the field.

Originally from Guyana, Francois got us off to a flying start with some flamboyant shots in the 1st 3 overs. In fact, the boundary bench was like a box seat treat to the Caribbean T20 blast as our No.1 opener did not waste time going crash bang wallop around the park. It was unfortunate that his entertainment package came to an end courtesy of a 1/2 worldee at deep point as the ball was flying towards the rope.

Next in was Harry no.2 a.k.a Edmonds. On the back of a most recent fast 50 in Isleworth, Edmonds got off to a promising start with some superb strokes through cow corner and cover. Another 50 not to be as ROCC looked to be in the hunt with the 2nd impervious fielding display of the day.

2 wickets down and along came Junaid Ahmed to the middle. Ahmed is the cousin of rising star Azharul Haque and has a good technique for a middle order batter.

With the tide turning, a rebuild was on as Davies and Ahmed put on the highest partnership of our innings featuring exemplary strokes down the ground on the leg side and rock solid defence against a bowling attack that had a quality array of seam and spin which feature quite a bit in teams which hail from Middlesex.

Davies, in particular, has had a fantastic elevation to the top of the order in the last few weeks having witnessed his sterling efforts on the same ground against Thames Otters CC.

In his 100th appearance for PCC, we were treated to a batting exhibition to rival that of Jason Roy. In searing heat, Davies soaked up a fair bit of pressure but kept the scoreboard ticking over with newfound form like navigating a voyage across the silk route. His 50 around drinks break was met with applause from the rope and the umpires.

Unfortunately for Davies, the visitor's resident Jadeja bowled him around the wicket and Ahmed, Smith both followed suit as the spinners were wrestling some momentum to the point where we were on the verge of dismissal for 180 inside 40 overs.

And then came skipper GT at no.7 playing a role which could be described as a resident "rock of Gibraltar"/"Cape Of Good Hope" as the run rate deceleration felt like 70mph stormy waters ready to flood a precariously positioned pontoon.

His first couple of overs at the crease were emmaculate judging by his trademark drives to get off the mark and into double digit figures. From then on, Tunnacliffe was ready to step into 2nd, 3rd then 4th gear as we were badly needing a partnership to steady what was becoming a paltry finish to the innings.

Having been in crunch situations over the years, yours truly was more than happy to anchor one end and rotate the strike as a bit of a "call to arms" for the team in the last 8-10 overs.

It was enjoyable and fruitful batting with the skipper who resurrected the innings akin to Horatio Nelson's Battle of Trafalgar. Apart from a couple faux pas moments running between the wickets, we got the strike rotations down to a tee that the 200 total came up at blistering pace.

Next came 50 for Tunnacliffe which was a masterpiece when the chips were down.

Unfortunately he was caught when embarking on a "fireworks" show in the last two overs which meant Dave Yates was last in to bat. Take a bow skip!

To his credit, Yates put up a piece de resistance including a very nice late cut out of the Joe Root "textbook". Again, in an attempt to go aerial, Yates was caught as we were bowled out for 245 runs in the 40th over.

With half time tea consumed, GT delivered an inspirational speech before we took to the "furnace". Sawyer opened up with venom and pace at one end whilst the skipper fancied a "spanner in the works" couple of overs at the other end.

It looked like a very long afternoon of slog as our fielders spent fair bit on ball fetching from the bushes with ROCC openers in T20 mode. One of the openers was particularly savage on anything short as he was on his way to a fast 50.

With the new ball difficult to control, the skipper turned to Haque for a majestic spell of blistering pace and "toe crushers". What followed in the subsequent 5-10 overs was an absolute leapfrog of a momentum shifter as wickets tumbled faster than the pound sterling since ROCC top order were "thunderstruck" by his inswinging yorkers. On a couple of occasions, Haque was on the verge of a hat trick as Tunnacliffe ramped up the slips cordon 3 fold.

5 wickets down, half way there as the ROCC middle order were not willing to fold over.

The skipper turned to his middle overs go to spinners which was promising at 1st but then felt like containing fried popcorn as we couldn't quite seize catching opportunities going towards the drinks break - we looked like getting off scot free if this game was played in Wuhan.

A few lbw shouts and caught behinds turned down and the runs defence was starting to unravel without the 3rd umpire or some sort of divine intervention.

The 15 overs which followed after the drinks break was a make or break situation.

The skipper looked for other options to stem the tide including himself and Francois with pace options looking very limited for the business end of the game.

Francois was an interesting choice evidenced by the "creole" of deliveries served up each over - fast off spin, top spin and something between an arm ball and a carom ball. Pity that his kaleidoscope went unrewarded witnessing from short fine leg a large number of plays and misses. To top it a off, Francois was not afraid to have a bit of banter with the batters which drew plenty of chuckles.

Waiting patiently for a good part of 30 overs, Yates was entrusted to bowl stump to stump in tandem with Haque who had 3 overs up his sleeve. Much like a prospector crusading for gold in Kalgoorlie nestled in the wheatbelt of Western Australia, Yates was yearning for eureka.

After a couple of overs settling in, the batters could not land the final blows as dot balls and miscues sent the asking run rate above 10 an over; Yates answered the captain's call across a superb spell which included a marvellous caught and bowled which drew memories of Shane Lee's caught and bowled heroics in a Australia v Pakistan ODI match back in 2000.

To seal the match, Haque finally came back on and simply blew away the tail like a Hurricane off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Topping it all off, close to (if not) career best figures featuring 6'fer with the home crowd brewing in the background.

Concluding remarks courtesy of skipper GT:

"Lads thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable day today and for making it very easy to skipper you. Definitely lived up to the ‘positivity, energy and intent’ chat that I went on about in all aspects of the game, so a big thank you for that!

A couple of special mentions:
1. @⁨Azharul Haque⁩ goes without saying, what a season mate and thoroughly deserve the wicket record - what a boy!!
2. ⁠@⁨Harry⁩ a 50 on your 100th game, alpha knock that
3. ⁠Last but not least, @⁨Dave Yates⁩ best I’ve seen you bowl by a country mile, can’t believe Azza took that 5-fer away from you ?

Anyways thank you for another lovely plough day out and catch up soon!"

Acknowledgements:
1. Ruislip Orientals CC for their attendance, brilliant fielding efforts and commendable run chase
2. Leon Parks - for getting the fixture on
3. Rob Keogh and the home crowd - when the tide goes away from us, it gives us a lot of satisfaction and motivation when we have your support when the game is 50/50

Match report from Niraj Tailor