Universities Twenty20 tournament, Sunday July 3rd

The Bristol T20 tournament has a long history as these things go. It was first organised around 1999 but hasn't happened every year. One year it was rained off, and at least once it did happen but we were unable to raise a team. The participants are Bristol Academicals, Bristol Venturers (who were once UWE although their connection with the university is pretty tenuous nowadays) and Cardiff. Bournemouth once put in an appearance, in a year when we didn't.

At some point in the mid-2000s it was sufficiently established for an actual trophy to be made. This was the exclusive preserve of Bristol Academicals at first, but in 2009 we surprised everybody, including ourselves, by winning it in considerable style. Last year we won again, less convincingly but still clearly enough. The Academicals, encouraged by beating us earlier in the season, wanted it back.

It is one of the features of this tournament that the organisation is slightly eccentric. The main things - pitches and so on - are always done very smoothly and efficiently, and then something slightly peculiar happens. It used to be the complicated system of points, which included several rules that only applied in situations that could not possibly occur. Last year it was the draw, which specified that in the second round the winners of each of the first matches were to play the losers of the other. It blew a fuse when one of the first matches was tied.

This year the draw was completely settled in advance. We were to play UWE on the second pitch; then there would be a lunch interval, at which tea was provided, and we would play Cardiff on the second pitch; and then there would be a tea interval, at which lunch was provided, and finally we played Academicals on the first pitch.

We had brought twelve people, deciding not to bring a thirteenth after being reassured that Santosh's ankle would stand the strain. UWE and Cardiff did the same, and the Academicals brought twenty-three. The lunch-at-teatime people were understandably confused by being asked to feed fifty-nine, and less undertandably confused by finding that eleven of them were vegetarians. There were just enough baked potatoes to go round. In hindsight the fact that the vegetarian and non-vegetarian sandwiches were all mixed up together at the tea-at-lunchtime should have warned us of this.

Match 1: UWE 123, Venturers 124-5 (19.3 overs)

UWE batted first against us: Alex stood down, and Paul kept wicket. Chiran removed one opener early and UWE's very dangerous number 3 had his leg stump completely removed by Satheesh before he could do any damage. By that time, though, the other opener (Rohan) was well on his way. He was joined by the adhesive Ivor and together they laid the foundations of a big score. It didn't help that we dropped Rohan at least once and missed some clear run-out chances: there were also overthrows and some misfields. Chiran and Satheesh ended with identical figures of 1-26, and Gregory and Santosh did not seem likely to improve matters. What did finally improve matters was a throw from the deep from Shashank, making up for some wobbly fielding earlier, which ran out Rohan as he tried for a third run off Santosh.

From that point, UWE lost eight wickets for 27 runs in thirty-eight balls, as the innings collapsed in front of the helpless Ivor. There were some strange features. Of the last seven batsmen, only numbers 8 and 9 made any runs at all, and they both made three and then had their middle stump knocked out. The really strange thing was that the bowlers were Simon and Gregory. At least in Simon's case it was his quicker ball, but Gregory's was just a plain slow off-break. There were three run-outs: Ilyas, having finally dismissed Ivor with the last ball of the eighteenth over, ended the innings next ball when he threw out the number 10, who had backed up too far, from mid-on.

We were chasing 124, which is steep but not impossible, and maybe thirty runs fewer than we had been expecting at one stage. The first over, though, was a maiden and although there were a couple of wides at the other end there was also, very soon, a ball good enough to remove David. Santosh began with a boundary but didn't time the ball again, eventually skying to mid-off. Shashank was a little more comfortable but his style involves some risk. We still had plenty of batting to come, but we needed somebody to keep calm: this was not a pitch on which to force the pace. Calm is what Ilyas does. From his first eight balls he scored one single. It disturbed him not at all: the overall run rate was acceptable, and the important thing was not to lose wickets. He and Shashank added nearly fifty before Shashank miscued. Chiran hit the only six of the innings but was otherwise quite restrained too: the match remained finely balanced. Perhaps we were marginal favorites until Chiran got out. Around this time UWE made a mistake, allowing one of their bowlers an over too many and forcing themselves to use a sixth bowler at the end. It didn't directly matter, but it meant that Ilyas and Tom knew that at some point there would be an opportunity. But Tom had started with a timely boundary, and without taking excessive risks they brought it down to needing six off the last over. Ivor, an occasional bowler but a competent one, bowled it. Ilyas took two off the first ball and could do nothing with the second. A wide followed, and to the third legitimate ball Ilyas, for the first time, chanced his arm and was caught at deep mid-on. The batsmen crossed, so Tom faced the fourth ball, needing three. It was on his pads but he got anough bat on it: he and Satheesh had to run the three, but did it easily.

Match 2: Venturers 144-7, Cardiff 93-9.

This time we batted. Simon stood down. Tom was captain and Alex kept wicket. Paul played as a batsman. David got a start this time: in fact he had fifteen before Shashank had faced a ball, as the spinner who bowled the second over had trouble with his line up the slope. Once Shashank did get the strike he soon caught up, and the score was 59 by the time David tried something extravagant to the first ball of the ninth over. A short and violent innings by Santosh ended an over later in a spectacular run-out, which depended on a direct hit but could have been avoided by almost any sensible action by either batsman. Later there was a blazing but short-lived row in Hindi between Shashank and Santosh which caused great amusement to those able to understand it. As far as we can make out both batsmen thought it was their call but neither of them actually did call.

Satheesh restored some order but the introduction of Cardiff's fifth bowler in the fourteenth over (the score was 100-2) nearly wrecked the innings. Shashank, Ilyas and later Santha (who had no choice by then) all tried to attack him and failed immediately, and Chiran got out puzzlingly at the other end. Alex eventually brought things under control, and Satheesh was more selective with his shots until eventually he, too, missed one. That was in the last over, though, which brought us only two runs; so Cardiff were probably chasing less than they expected.

It always seemed too many, though. Santha was impossible to score off: in his four overs there were only three scoring shots. There were, however, twelve wides - only five deliveries, but mostly out of Alex's reach - but his final figures were still very useful. Chiran was more conventionally economical and broke the opening partnership at the end of the seventh over. Since net run rate might be a decider we needed to win by as much as possible, and we did that rather efficiently. Tom hit the stumps three times, Santosh also got three wickets and demonstrated his celebrated quicker ball quite a lot, and Gregory and Santosh finished off.

Match 2: Venturers 144-7, Cardiff 93-9.

For the final game, Simon was left with the awkward decision of who to rest. Paul, scheduled to keep, helped him out of dilemma by generously offering to stand aside leaving Alex to don the gloves. Simon lost the toss and Bristol, after some hesitation, elected to bowl.

David and Shashank started with a brisk partnership of 56 in overs exactly. It looked rather better on paper than it did on the pitch. Quite a few of the runs off the bat were fortuitous, but there were only 25 off the bat anyway. 31 extras in six overs takes a lot of doing. Half of them came at the beginning of the second over, when the bowler lost all sense of direction and began with a wide, a no-ball for overstepping, five more wides - that is, five wide deliveries, from which several runs were also taken - another no-ball, for a high full toss this time, and two more wides, before finally embarking on what proved to be quite a good over. He continued, though, without further incident. It was the bowler at the other end who was taken off, for being conventionally expensive, and replaced by somebody quick who also produced a small spate of wides.

It couldn't last long. The quick bowler started to bowl straight and bowled David and Santosh in the seventh over. Satheesh got bowled at the other end. Ilyas was leg before and Shashank also bowled before the fast bowler injured himself appealing for LBW and hobbled off with three balls of his spell unbowled. It didn't help us much: Tom was so very leg before that he almost walked, and Alex was quickly run out. Chiran resisted a little before chipping a return catch, at which point we had lost eight wickets for 25 in seven overs.

We were saved by Santha and Simon, just as we were in the corresponding fixture last year. With only Gregory to come (as Paul could fairly have pointed out) they calmly batted out the overs, doing nothing extravagant but running hard. Simon's 23 not out, made from number 10, was comfortably the top score of the innings. The fielding was good and the outfield slow: there were no easy runs to be had, so they made sure they took what there was. We ended with enough to give us a chance, but we didn't expect it to be enough.

Dave, Bristol's captain, wicketkeeper, opener, general counterpart to UWE's Rohan and token non-Indian (well, there were a few others) was the main danger. Unlike anybody else on either side he regularly timed his shots. He and his partner set off at a gallop but were brought up short when Tom held onto a sharp return catch. Dave was still there, but his new partner (Tom had taken a second wicket) was unable to time anything. Tom and Chiran managed to keep him on strike and lower the run rate sharply: rather negative tactics as Dave's wicket would have given us the game, but we didn't have very many runs. By the time Santosh made the mistake of bowling the non-Dave Bristol had occupied more than half their overs in making 54. That meant a required run rate above seven an over, and a finely balanced game.

The new batsman was the previously injured bowler. He batted with a runner, confusing everybody. The first person to be confused was Gregory, who instructed Santosh to take the bails off after a single had been completed and then appealed. The situation was patiently explained to him and the game carried on. The next batsman, even though injured, struck the ball well sometimes and the partnership was beginning to be a menace. Then the injured striker wandered out of his crease as his runner completed a single for him. He's not allowed to do that, but everything depends on the player with the ball knowing that. Alex did know it (perhaps reminded by Gregory's earlier confusion) and took the bails off. There was a long discussion. We explained to the umpires what the grounds of our appeal were, offering to lend the umpires our copy of the Laws. We hope that we managed to make it clear what the spirit of this offer was: this situation seldom arises and everything depends on the precise wording, which none of us knew but we had a copy of. You can't expect people to know this one. Three separate conferences formed: some fielders, the batsmen and the umpires. All three eventually reached the same conclusion, that if the striker was out of his ground when Alex took the bails off then he was out. The umpires' conference further reached the conclusion that he had indeed been out of his ground - only Alex and the square leg umpire had been in any position to know that - and gave him out.

After that there we only needed to worry much about one end. Santosh and Satheesh kept the runs down, Satheesh removed another of Dave's partners, and we fielded well. When they ran out of overs and we were down to the last four, Simon risked Gregory. UWE arrived at the this point: having beaten Cardiff heavily they would win the tournament if we lost by not too much. But what they saw was Dave losing another partner, well caught by Santosh. In the next over, Ilyas made us firm favourites when he bowled Dave himself, off an inside edge.

That wasn't quite all, though. Gregory's last over was expensive. Not very expensive, but enough to leave them with an outside chance, needing thirteen off the last over. Ilyas calmed things with a wicket, caught by Alex, first ball. There was a single off the second. Boundaries were needed: the batsman drove the third ball high towards the shortest boundary to mid-off's right. Bristol players leapt excitedly to their feet. Tom leapt also, somehow got both hands to the ball and held on. Now we were safe: the match ended with two straight balls from Ilyas, the first pushed to mid-on for an accepted single, and the second missed.

We won but we didn't prove we were the best side. There was almost no difference between us and Bristol, who were third: either they or UWE could just as easily have won. What settled it in the end was probably that we stayed calm when it really mattered. Ilyas and Tom, especially, saw what needed to be done and quietly did it. Bristol will feel that for the second year in succession they were denied by the refusal of Santha and Simon to bat as tail-enders ought.

Fixtures & Results 2011