Hay Hill vs Venturers, Thursday June 9th

Venturers 133-7, Hay Hill 80

There is always a biting wind at Kingswood, where this match was played. This time we were on the far pitch, by the running track, with a clear view across to Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument as well as the view of Beckford's Tower. It was too cold to appreciate them much.

Hay Hill won the toss and put us in before counting themselves and finding that there were only eight of them. A few minutes were passed in negotiations about whether batsmen should retire at 50 ("You do know who we've got in our side?") but we felt that we had a few people who could bowl and even one or two who could bat, and that tinkering with the rules is a bad idea generally. In the event only the captains passed 16: their captain made 21 and Alistair 43, both not out.

Ilyas and Chris opened. Chris made his usual tentative start but it was Ilyas who fell first, picking out mid-off when he, unusually for him, chose the wrong ball to hit. This was from their quickish opening bowler, who also accounted for Chris a bit later with a rapid inducker. At the other end, where the bowler was as quick but tended to drop short, Renju belied his reputation as a hitter with two elegant and delicate cuts for four. On changing ends he signalled his intention to hit a bit too clearly and was bounced out. This may have been a mistake by Hay Hill. Santosh and Shashank each hit a six and looked promising before they holed out and Chirandeep was leg before. By the time Ahad, who had played sensibly and held the innings together, miscued we were in considerable trouble. We were rescued by Alistair and Rob, who took advantage of some less accurate bowling but played very well. Rob scored in singles unless the bowling strayed down leg, but Alistair was willing to hit straight and hit seven fours. They added 45, unbroken, for the eighth wicket in five and a half overs and transformed our rather ordinary score into something very defensible.

Hay Hill do have batsmen, though. At least five of them were good enough to make a significant proportion of the runs needed. Chirandeep and Renju, who had been watching his box set of Devon Malcolm after being hit, didn't let them. Renju bowled really fast and fairly straight most of the time, got one to keep low at high speed and go for four byes, and then produced another of the same only straight, flooring the batsman as he tried unsuccessfully to keep it out. A sharp inducker from Chiran saw off the other opener, and they handed over to the spinners at 32-2 after eight overs. Neither Gregory nor Santosh bowled well at first, and Gregory was briefly expensive, but at the end of Santosh's first over the batsman who had done the damage to Gregory unwisely attempted a second on a misfield by Ilyas, who recovered and ran him out. Next ball the last really good batsman clumped Gregory's full toss high in the sky down to long-on, where Santosh happily caught it. A couple of overs later Gregory induced another miscue, a little less luckily this time.

Then Santosh pulled the curtain down with a hat-trick. The first was another gentle full toss, pushed helpfully into Chiran's hands, but the next two were fierce quicker balls: the first trimmed the bails off and the second would have done but for pad. The tailender who followed survived Santosh, just, and played a couple of good shots before trying to hit Gregory somewhere over the rainbow that had appeared, and finally the captain, trying to keep the strike, chanced Ilyas's arm again and ran his partner out.

Fixtures & Results 2011