Bristol Academicals Vs Venturers, Sunday June 23rd

Bristol 121, Venturers 122-3

For the first time this year there were only ten of us, but the opposition, who had been in the same position themselves until two in the morning, lent us a fieldsman. It made little difference in terms of runs, but was pleasanter. We were on the main pitch at Coombe Dingle, in front of the impressive pavilion built a century ago to replace the one burnt down by suffragettes.

The Academicals’ innings consisted of three distinct phases. In the first phase, which lasted one ball, Anand simply uprooted the leg stump. The second phase was an alarmingly effective second-wicket partnership of seventy-five or so. The other opener was not very correct but hit the ball a long way whenever he got the chance: the number 3 was altogether more cultured, but less violent. Aby dropped short too often but Anand was mostly difficult to get away: he didn’t bowl straight enough at the more correct batsman, though, and was simply ignored most of the time. The opener took him on and hit a huge six back down the ground, which doesn’t happen to Anand very often.

The third phase began when, after a dozen overs, Simon decided to try something different and brought on Yameen and Gregory. Yameen shut the scoring down instantly. The number 3 played Gregory’s first two balls carefully and lofted the third, but got the flight slightly wrong and didn’t quite clear Aby, who caught an excellent catch above his head. The opener survived and hit the few bad balls he got but Yameen and Gregory allowed nobody else more than a single. They got four wickets each, Yameen finally picking up the opener through another good catch by Aby, at cover this time. He was slightly more expensive than Gregory, but only because when he hit the edge it went further. Two such edges went through first slip, one at catchable height, immediately after Gregory had been moved to second slip: that was about our only mistake in this phase. As a coda, the last-wicket pair added a dozen before Agam ended the innings.

The opening batsman also opened the bowling, perhaps rather more natural terrain for him, and was quite quick but not always accurate. Chris took advantage, but Agam did not last long. Chris clipped a ball to backward square leg and Agam called, as he should, promptly and loudly but alas incomprehensibly. Then he ran, and was out by some distance.

Rasesh swiped mightily at the quick bowler and struggled a bit otherwise. He connected only about one time in three, but that was plenty. With Chris still clumping anything leg-side through square leg the scoring was fast, but we knew we could collapse at any moment. That seemed likely when Chris got out and Saad was ridiculously bowled by a double bouncer, but Tim, who had kept wicket well and taken a good catch off Yameen’s bowling, also batted sensibly and Rasesh’s luck never ran out: we had ten overs to spare in the end.

Scorecard <table id="scorecardframe"> <tr> <td> <table id="scorecard"><tr> <td>Agam</td> <td> 4 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Chris M</td> <td> 21 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Rasesh</td> <td> 51 n.o. </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Saad</td> <td> 3 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Tim</td> <td> 26 n.o. (1ct) </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Yameen</td> <td> d.n.b. </td> </tr><tr> <td>Aby John</td> <td> d.n.b. (2ct) </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Simon</td> <td> d.n.b. </td> </tr><tr> <td>Anand</td> <td> d.n.b. </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Gregory</td> <td> d.n.b. </td> </tr><tr> <td></td> <td> </td> </tr></table></td><td class="gap"></td><td style="width:250"><table id="scorecard"> <tr> <td>Anand</td> <td> 8-3-25-1 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Aby John</td> <td> 6-0-44-0 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Yameen</td> <td> 8-2-24-4 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Gregory</td> <td> 8-4-18-4 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Agam</td> <td> 2-0-6-1 </td> </tr></table> </td> </tr> </table>