Saturday 1s vs Ham & Petersham
Author: Calpol
Match Report |
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Eid Mubarak! Putney CC are not famed for their spirituality but were certainly in celebratory mood as Ramadan came to a close on Saturday 16th June. Playing on the Muslim equivalent of Boxing Day, we encountered a Ham & Petersham side missing a number of key players to the festivities. Also missing on the day was Putney captain Devon Ebersohn, and in his place, vice-captain Saad Hannan recorded his maiden victory. Completing a hat trick of things that were missing, the game started without H&P’s umpire who was finishing his breakfast in the nearby café. Saad’s philosophy on timed games is well known, we’re all sick of hearing about it. He got the chance to put it into practice on the day as he won the toss and invited the hosts to bat first. On a pitch akin to a dual carriageway and a minute legside boundary, this raised a few eyebrows among the Putney team. Nevertheless, Putney’s 5-man seam attack set about the home batsmen with a fine display of accurate bowling. Ham were quickly reduced to 23-2 with Ben ‘Surrey’ Williamson seeing off both openers as Sam Furber repeatedly beat the bat from the other end. Ham’s number 3 stuck around for a good knock as he nudged the ball into gaps, but lacked support as Ham struggled to 58/5. Putney continued to dominate, with the majority of runs scored behind square. Although Ham offered few genuine chances, one of them naturally fell to Saad and he naturally shelled it. Andy Hyland claimed three catches in a faultless display with the gloves, and Furber claimed a catch which only he thought had carried; the batsman eventually given the benefit of the doubt by the umpire at deep square leg. A couple of lower order partnerships helped Ham to 133, before the return of Furber brought a quickfire three wickets which spelt the end of the Ham innings. 137 all out. Tea was taken in a lovely pub with probably the world’s best roast beef sandwiches and some first rate samosas. Top marks for the spread. Regular readers of Putney match reports may have noticed a certain opener’s dearth of runs of late, and being sledged by my own umpire must have knocked my fragile confidence even further. After racing to 14 off as many balls, I found myself in unfamiliar territory with a strike rate above 50. This induced mild panic and I promptly scooped a full delivery into the outstretched claw of mid off, who seemed duly surprised to have held it. Sensing an opportunity to build some momentum, Ham’s umpire promptly sent Piers packing after the 6’5 batsman was rapped on the thigh pad. This led to some good-natured debate between the two sides… Luckily it’s a team game, and Rikki Sahi batted like he fancied winning it all on his own. A succession of sixes cleared the short boundary as he put Putney in total control of the game before holing out for a quickfire 43. A question of jug avoidance, perhaps? Seizing his opportunity for a score was Hopey, who had pretty much spent the previous three paragraphs watching from the non-striker’s end. Compiling his runs with classy on-drives and the occasional sweep, he put Ham to the sword and carried Putney to victory with a confident 56* - but not before almost punching one onto his stumps for the third week in a row. Hopey was deservedly MOTM for his innings in addition to a super catch at slip. Saad may well have won the “thanks for coming” award but at least he won the toss, and as #saadsays, that’s really important in timed games. Quite. |
Date | Time | Team | Opposition | Location | Putney | Opposition | Result | Scores | Points | Toss |
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16/06/2018 | 1pm | Saturday 1st | Ham & Petersham | A | 140/4 | 137/10 | W | 20 |