On a sunny dry day with a surprisingly (for this year) good track to bat on, winning the toss clearly meant batting – except Wooburn won the toss.
A strong batting unit made it difficult for all the bowlers to take wickets and maintain economy. Sai (8.3.33.0) began with a maiden during which helmets were summoned. Prasad (5.0.36.1) began loosely, conceding 2 boundaries, but Wheeler, when going for a 3rd, miscued it, and Ben Abrahamson took an amazing twisting catch which seemed to be behind him. A genuine champagne moment. Next over Prasad was injured when preventing a boundary and he had to retreat to the pavilion in search of ice. Full credit to him for returning and bowling later in the innings. His replacement, Tristan Parnell, soon struck when Kelly struck two consecutive balls with almighty power at Venky, who pocketed the second, seemingly with ease. 21-2 became 42 -4 with Saqib (5.0.31.2) taking 2 excellent wickets, one bowled and the other well caught by keeper Will Brooks .. who at some stage badly damaged (broke?) his finger – yet again carried on throughout the innings. 2 bowlers’ wickets! Ives looked in the ascendancy but a 5th wicket partnership by the watchful Cuthbert (61*) and the brutal Dolan (43) took Wooburn beyond 100 and it took John Loveday’s final over to bring him the reward his bowling (8.1.28.1) deserved, thanks to a solid catch, courtesy of the safe hands of Sai. Venky (5.0.24.1) immediately struck with an excellent catch by T Parnell – returning the favour. 104 -6 and the tail would collapse … .. it didn’t. Experience from Cuthbert and Barker (32) ensured they would use the allotted overs and knew exactly when to increase the run rate – reaching 196-7 with one over left. Bowling at this stage was not easy and Mo (3.0.24.0) found the batsmen ready to hit out. T Parnell (6.1.17.3) had returned to bowl the 2 death overs at the end, and conceded just the one whilst bowling Baxter with the last ball. So 197-8 and 198 to win.
Ives’ reply looked catastrophic at 0-2 but S Parnell (19) avoided the hat trick and played watchfully and sensibly, whilst looking completely at ease. However he was starved of the strike as Sai proceeded to destroy the opposing bowlers. 101 for the 3rd wicket put Ives on track – achieved in just 12 overs! Mo struck 2 boundaries (8 in 6 balls), taking us to 115-8, and when skipper Collins arrived all he had to do was stay there and watch Sai score. Collins’ 4 runs in 25 balls didn’t seem to effect the run rate as Sai was rampant- except for an attack of cramp. Sai maintained his concentration to pass his 100, taking 20 of one over. His dismissal had to be a boundary catch on 114, with the score on 178-5. Still a little to do but 16 overs left! Collins (30*) upped his run rate (26 of 12 balls) as wickets fell at the other end but Ives passed the winning total in the 28th over, with number 9 Tristan who scoring the winning boundary. With numbers 10 and 11 both injured and doubts as to whether they could bat, this was a very close finish – despite it being a 3 wicket victory with 12 overs to spare.
Despite some excellent moments and contributions man of the match is easy:
Sai 114 and 0-33
Author: R Collins