Venturers Vs Stirling Dynamics, Tuesday April 30th

Stirling Dynamics 113-7, Venturers 114-6

All our matches are friendlies but this one was almost absurdly so. The sort where the opposition turn up with dougnuts. Where, if you hit the ball but are given out LBW, you know that you can just say so and the bowler and the umpire will apologise and reinstate you. Where neither captain bats because they want to give other people a chance. Where you finish in almost complete darkness because it would be unfair to call it off when you’re losing.

The standard of cricket in this spectacularly uncompetitive match was no worse than usual. Stirling Dynamics are run by Yameen, who used to play for us, but we had to start without him and two of his team-mates because of traffic. By the time they arrived, Anand had single-handedly devastated their top order with two return catches, one taken cleanly and one after a prolonged juggle, and two bowled. At the other end, Matt G again bowled far too well to get any wickets, or for anybody to score any runs off him. Murali (right arm today) was only sometimes accurate and the fifth-wicket stand promised something, but Gregory broke it and took two more wickets and Murali settled. Matt R nearly got a wicket with his first ball back playing for the Venturers again, but Anand wasn’t quite tall enough to reach it; but thereafter Matt and Simon, bowling to two numbers eight and nine, rather lost it. To be fair the batting order did not seem to reflect ability. The number nine in particular could definitely bat. His partner didn’t have the appearance of a cricketer, but had everything else. With only four overs left they couldn’t do much damage, and we were left with 114 to chase.

Matt R got us there, with the season’s first fifty. He and John looked for quite a while as though they might get the runs unaided, but the unlikely-looking batsman also proved to be an unlikely-looking bowler, and removed not only John but also Sanket, Rasesh (who had kept wicket) and Kevin. They all contributed a few, though, as did Prashanth, who was leg before to the left-armer at the other end. Sanket, caught at square leg, was the only one of the thirteen wickets in this match that involved anybody but the bowler: the others were four LBW, six bowled and Anand’s two caught-and-bowleds.

By the time Matt G joined Matt R it was getting dark, and we still needed another forty from eight overs. Nobody bowled fast, though, and Matt R at least was seeing the ball well. As long as we didn’t panic we would win; and for once we didn’t panic, even when Matt G got himself out with half a dozen needed, hitting across the line he could no longer see. He was annoyed with himself and the rest of us worried that Murali might not have time to adjust to the light. But Murali played sensibly, simply blocking roughly where the ball ought to be and reckoning that if it was somewhere else it didn’t matter. Matt could still see, and between them they finished the match off with no further alarms.

Scorecard