Venturers vs Cramer, Wednesday June 1st

Cramer 93-9, Venturers 97-3

The odd thing about this match was that twenty-three people played in it. Cramer's usually efficient captain, Harjeet, had notified us in advance that he was likely to be three players short and we had agreed to lend him Paul and Afeef. Harjeet, however, had underestimated his own efficiency and turned up with ten, handing Afeef back to us. Paul kept wicket for Cramer and batted at number 11.

Harjeet opened Cramer's batting himself and the first couple of overs were expensive. Santha dropped short twice, and Iain, an occasional bowler but a capable one, lost his range completely and delivered five no-balls, two shoulder high (though hardly dangerous) and three daisy-cutters. Iain was taken off, but Santha was allowed to bowl his four overs, which was clearly right as the rest were excellent. At the other end Satheesh also bowled well and got considerable movement, which he couldn't quite always control. One of these uncontrolled deliveries landed within Harjeet's reach and he carved it down to third man. His partner announced "three!" immediately, turned blind for the third and was run out by a considerable distance by Tom Robinson's throw. The new batsman showed a marked liking for the leg side. In his last over, with Santosh now at the other end, Satheesh bowled Harjeet. Gregory replaced him, started far outside leg and worked gradually across to the off. The batsman swept and missed each time. The first was a wide; the second time only Alastair at, er, midwicket, appealed; the third time Alex joined in; and the fourth time the bowler joined in. Paul, umpiring, judged that the stumps had now been reached and, with an expression of deep disgust, gave it out. Gregory continued mechanically tracking across, ending with an off-side wide. The rest of the Cramer innings was an inelegant slide, punctuated by two stumpings by Alex and a well-taken catch by Santha. Later Satheesh kept wicket for a while. Tom Robinson and Afeef rounded off the innings with two accurate overs and one wicket each. Paul, appearing at the very end, nearly ran his partner out and was dropped at slip in making three, or possibly four, not out.

Tom Rosoman hit two fours in the opening over but Chris, always an uncertain starter, got a good ball early on. Iain went hard at anything wide and he and Tom made quite rapid progress, which came to an abrupt end when Iain went hard at a straight ball and missed completely. By then the score was 35 in the eighth over and we were comfortably placed. Santosh, another uncertain starter, was badly dropped at mid-off before he had scored, and after that the Cramer fielding disintegrated entirely. Amid a riot of overthrows, misfields, drops and general disorder were a few pieces of excellence and we were lucky to escape a run-out; but the runs kept coming. Eventually Tom was well caught at backward point but the batsmen crossed and Alex, who came in next, didn't face a ball before Santosh finished the match.

Fixtures & Results 2011