Saturday 1s vs St James
Author: Rolf “Coinpurse” Merchant
Match Report |
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After a seemingly interminable winter, it was at last time to take to the cricket field again. It was a very pleasant welcome back to Putney: warm sunshine, nice breeze, beautifully cut wicket. Perfect. Skipper Devon won the toss and we bowled first. Sam Furber, on debut, opened the bowling and created a chance first ball. A limp push by their opener went straight to Rolf at mid on, only for him to shell it. Welcome to Putney CC, Sam. Undeterred, Sam bowled tidily and at lively pace, with Ben “Surrey” Williamson getting the ball to talk at the other end. Wickets came quickly, with Surrey bowling a delightful full toss which their other opener obligingly missed and was pinned lbw. Their no. 3 then had his furniture rearranged by another Surrey swinger. Sam followed up with three wickets in his opening spell, including a deadly yorker which did their no. 6 all ends up. St James were 45-5 after Surrey and Sam were rested. Rolf and Hugo carried on the work with some accurate bowling, the former claiming a wicket of the no. 7 courtesy of a drag on. They were replaced by Saad and Travis Pyke, another debutante. Travis bowled manfully and economically though without luck – we lost count of the number of plays at misses. St James’ no. 5, their stand out batsman, took a distinct liking to Saad, dispatching him for multiple boundaries, though Saad did make inroads against the lower order, claiming two wickets. Runs came in fits and starts, and St James crept up to 150. Sam affected a run out in the dying overs and there was time for another fielding balls up – on the very last ball of the innings – as Rolf ran around a swirling one and missed again. More fielding practice please. 151 seemed like a reasonable victory target. Our innings got off to a sticky start with Umpire Merchant fingering Andy first ball, a decision with which Andy violently disagreed. (Dear ECB, please will you fund a DRS system for our ground?) Piers (26) cracked a few boundaries before being caught at point, leaving Dev and new boy Sam to take up the task. Both were going well and put on 29 before Dev swept to the man on the 45. Amogh was undone by one of St James slow bowlers, as was Sam (19) who was looking in good nick. We were looking a little shaky at 72/5, but two debutantes Joe “en guarde!” Sworder (20) and Travis (23) combined and provided some much needed application. They rotated the strike well against the spinners – the running was excellent – it was like they’d batted together for yonks. However both were bowled, leaving us needing 28 off the last 7 overs with 3 wickets to play with. Despite a few nerves, Surrey and Saad saw us home with relative ease – a testament to our deep batting line up. Naturally, Saad was nearly responsible for a comical run out, but happily Ben survived. A good showing in the end, with everyone contributing, especially the debutantes. Pleased with our efforts, we enjoyed one or two beverages after the game. Here’s to a successful season. |
Date | Time | Team | Opposition | Location | Putney | Opposition | Result | Scores | Points | Toss |
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22/04/2017 | 2pm | Saturday 1st | St James | H | 151/7 | 150/9 | W | 20 |