Saturday 2s vs Horsley & Send
Author: Rolf "Coinpurse" Merchant
Match Report |
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After the full 90 overs and a long afternoon of attritional cricket, we claimed victory with just 7 runs separating us from Horsley & Send. It was a very satisfying victory against a strong team. Something remarkable happened before the game even started: we announced an unchanged line-up. Even with the significant institutional memory of Doug, no one could recall this happening before. What a time to be a Putney cricketer. We lost the toss and were inserted. A slow start revealed the tackiness of the wicket and slowness of the outfield. Ollie, coming in at 3, overcame the outfield problem but taking the aerial route to great effect. We were purring at his pick-ups over deep square. While Ollie pummelled, Karan prodded and plinked. Talk of raising funds for a new bat for Karan was heard on the boundary edge. Ollie was yorked after a brisk 39, then Matt Cope came in and unfurled some meaty drives, and swiftly overtook Karan’s score. It looked increasingly like Karan was playing for the draw. He was eventually dislodged (18 off 76…), then Matt went as well. Alex and Amogh couldn’t get going, and soon we were 6 down with only 110 on the board. Tush slapped some boundaries to push us on before holing out, then Tom “Able” Seaman and I combined, opting for a tip-and-run approach, to nudge us past 140. Tom clipped a couple of fours at the death to get is in touching distance of 160. We felt relatively pleased at tea, which was a good one. Mark and Brian opened the bowling and both displayed impressive control. Mark, by far the fastest bowler in the game, got a bit of life out of the pitch, causing the odd one to spit up at their openers. They dug in well though, looking really determined. It took a worldy from Bri to get the breakthrough – a delivery that swung in then seamed out, getting through the bat’s defences. Truly scenes reminiscent of Warne to Gatting in 1993, had the bowler shaved off his long blonde hair and bowled 20mph slower. Tom and Tush came into the attack and maintained our frugality. The bowlers were backed up by some terrific fielding – Alex O diving around and deploying rugby passes to get the ball back to the stumps sticks in the mind. Our tight ring could not be penetrated. After 28 overs they had just 56 on the board. “Two an over boys,” chirped Brian, “Let’s see if we can get it down to one…, um, I mean, errr…one point something….” Their number 4 came in and finally they attacked. But before the beefy big hitter could make enough damage, he played on against Copey, who was in the midst of an impressive spell. Smart rotation of the bowlers and more excellent commitment in the field meant the asking rate only grew. It swelled to more than a run a ball as Tush and Copey maintained the squeeze. A late surge of runs (and some handbags between Tush and Karan following a missed run out) gave Horsley an outside chance in the final over. But we held our nerve. A few of us ventured into Horsley’s premier Indian restaurant after the game and reflected on what was a great team effort. Over mountains of bhajis, we covered everything from sub atomic physics, to Mumbai neighbourhoods, to Amogh’s various theories about business class air travel (basically, get pissed before boarding and all will be well). A more refined cricket team you will not find. We went home tired but happy. MotM: Copey – runs, wickets and catches. |
Date | Time | Team | Opposition | Location | Putney | Opposition | Result | Scores | Points | Toss |
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11/08/2018 | 1pm | Saturday 2nd | Horsley & Send | A | 156/9 | 149/8 | W | 20 |