Saturday 2s vs Woodmansterne

Author: Codpiece

Match Report

A Putney team NOT bottling a run chase is a rare sight. We managed it with the combination of discipline, intelligence and Josh only running out most (but crucially not all) of our lower order. Those of us who bothered to be punctual for the start of the game wisely opted to cream up before taking to the field. Some applied lotion more effectively than others. Brian initially looked like a seagull had dropped its bomb on him, then moved on to resembling someone who was on the receiving end of a serious round of bukkake. Meanwhile Doug had managed to look like a poorly made-up theatrical ghost. After some dynamic stretching we got down to business. Mark and Bri made early breakthroughs, both clean bowled. There might have been another wicket had Hugo picked up a leading edge, which ended up with the ball plopping about a yard in front of him. Whoops. A bit of a partnership then developed. Our bowlers skilfully bowled just outside leg stump to their left hander, who seemingly had no idea how to play a leg glance, in spite of intensive mid-game coaching from his batting partner. Some typically liquid fielding from the athletic Tush broke this dangerous stand. A bullet arm from the boundary found their leftie well short. And Josh definitely DID NOT demolish the wicket with his arm before the ball came into contact with his gloves. 84/3. From there on, wickets fell regularly. JP bowled his lovely loopy and slooooowww offies. “More spin than New Labour!” chirped Mark. Hugo bowled manfully but eventually ran out of puff, and then was very stationary for the rest of the innings, so kindly left me to do all his fielding for him. Runs kept coming as Woodmansterne went after almost everything. Brian was the main beneficiary of the slog fest, picking up two late wickets. Woodmansterne finished on 189. A good total if not a scary one. Doug and I had a brief stay at the top of the order, but it was the engine room of Amogh, Rich and then Tush that pushed our total on. Amogh perished trying to up the ante after making a busy 34. Tush was disgusted at himself after getting 25 and not hitting a single boundary. Welcome to my world Tush! It was Rich who looked by far the most comfortable, manoeuvring the ball smartly and running hard. He was eventually crowbarred out lbw on 45. That left us needing a further 40 with less than 10 overs in the bank. Josh, in at 6, now played the part of both villain and hero. First off, he cruelly ran out Mill Philborne (Milph), with a “no, wait, yes, no...sorry” classic. Mark strode in, new bat in hand (double gripped, for your pleasure) and boshed a few runs. Then Josh fell over in the middle of executing a legside hoik, meaning his run judgment went awry… Mark was found short and strode off. Credit to Josh though, he was picking off the required runs quite smoothly in the meantime. Four to win in the final over and there was still time for one final run out. JP was sold a dummy by Josh, set off from the non-strikers end, and found his turning circle far too big to get back to his ground. Josh celebrating his hat-trick of run outs by hitting the winning run. A crucial 26 not out, compiled cooly (except for all the run outs). I suppose we can’t do a run chase without several cockups. The important thing was that it was 20 points in the bag. We went home tired but happy. MotM: Rich, for anchoring our chase Mug of the Match: Josh, for all the run outs. TB“HOEDYDT?” Award: Moi, for casually stick out at square leg to deny a certain four.

Date	Time	Team	Opposition	Location	Putney	Opposition	Result	Scores	Points	Toss
22/06/2019	1pm	Saturday 2nd	Woodmansterne	A	190/8	189/7	W		20