Venturers Vs Bill Owen, Sunday June 9th

Bill Owen 173-7, Venturers 174-9

Sugar beet this year. Not potatoes, as we thought at first. They grow low, but the leaves spread and the ball hides among them. We beat Bill Owen by one wicket in 2009 and again in 2010, Simon being one of the not-out batsmen on each occasion. This time we expected them to be strong, but the very good Sri Lankan they have had the last two years was not there. He was out second ball two years ago and first ball last year, and couldn’t be persuaded to come this year and get run out without facing a ball at all.

They had plenty of batting without him, but we weren’t short of bowling either. Richard and Aby bowling to their openers was a rather higher standard of cricket than we usually get. Both these batsmen have made big scores against us before now, but Richard dismissed them both. One of them he bowled cheaply with one that held its line after the previous one had moved away. The other, Chris, managed twenty or so before holing out to Ian at cover, perhaps being over-ambitious since the rest of the bowling wasn’t going to be of the same class.

Not that Aby was that far behind, though he wasn’t at his best. Gregory was a long way from his best and was briskly hit out of the attack, and when Kevin’s first over proved poor, though not expensive, we were worried. But Kevin recovered and Simon did what Gregory was supposed to have done, with only occasional lapses. Kevin also removed two well-set batsmen, also bowling one and having the other caught by Ian, and between them he and Simon completely turned the game by slowing the scoring from nearly six an over to less than four. When Kevin ran out of overs Aby was available to finish off in the same style, but at the other end Simon had to choose between Gregory and Prasanth, both risks in view of Prasanth’s style and Gregory’s earlier spell. He correctly chose Prasanth, who partly demolished the tail, stopping only because the overs ran out when he had taken three cheap wickets.

Even so, we thought that 173 was probably out of our reach. It seemed further out of reach when Ian, having survived a close LBW appeal the previous ball, chopped on. Richard, classically, and Rasesh, in a jazzier style, added seventy for the second wicket and made the target look much more attainable. The trouble was that Richard was dominating the scoring, so when he got out, caught in the deep for 50 exactly off an accurate off-spinner, it wasn’t clear where the runs were going to come from. Arvind took a 20-overs approach, hitting at almost every ball, to Rasesh’s despair - it is not so long since Rasesh used to take a similar approach - and skied to mid-on. Rasesh’s image as the sensible one who would hold the innings together took a blow when he ran Kevin out. Still, he had added a few himself and there were still Roger and Alex to come: we were 101 for 4.

Moreover, Bill Owen were not without their own problems. They really only had two reliable bowlers: the off-spinner, who was out of overs, and the opening bowler who had bowled Ian. He had also opened the batting, caught Richard and hit the stumps for Kevin’s run-out. He bowls brisk left-arm and was being kept back for later. The other opening bowler was hard to hit but not, today, very threatening, and we had plenty of overs so we didn’t have to take risks against him: anyway he, too, was being kept back. So now there were two slightly erratic bowlers on, though neither could be treated casually.

Indeed, one of them made an impact in his first over. He started off with a couple of loose balls that Rasesh hit, but his third was directed at the body. Rasesh shaped to pull, then he realised that he was too cramped to do that safely, lowered his wrists and allowed the ball to hit him. The ball dropped to the ground and rolled into the leg stump. That was 110 for 5 and we had lost four wickets for 30, and still needed 64. Either Alex and Roger had to do most of it, or everybody had to chip in. The former seemed the better bet and for a while we made progress. Even the return of the left-armer didn’t immediately trouble us: Roger hit his first ball for four. In his second over, though, he bowled Roger, and Aby simply survived the rest. We were 128 for 6, with twelve overs left to get 44 runs: two of those overs would be bowled by the left-armer and four by the other opening bowler, who would be dangerous to the tail as well as hard to score off.

Aby played sensibly and Alex also hit a four off the left-armer, but then Alex was trapped on the back foot by the other bowler, who got one in the right place. More than one, in fact: this was an excellent over and Simon had to take care to survive the rest of it. The next two overs, including the left-armer’s last, were a bit looser and Aby and Simon took control, adding fifteen from them and bringing the target down to twenty-one from seven overs. That meant that if we didn’t get bowled out we would probably win; but then Aby’s aerial on-drive was startlingly intercepted at short midwicket and we were down to two wickets. Prashant blocked. At the sugarbeet end, the other opening bowler came back and was almost unhittable, but when he did once stray, Simon got hold of it. Next over Prashant managed nothing until the end, although there was a wide; but the fifth legitimate ball drifted down leg and he bashed it firmly along the ground into the sugar beet at square leg. Next ball he squirted into the offside and ran a frantic two. At the other end, Simon played a maiden. The first ball of the next over came back in and clipped the top of Prashant’s off stump.

So Gregory walked out into the situation learned by heart by generations of schoolboys:

There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night —
Ten to make and the match to win —
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.

The rest of this poem is not recommended for post-Imperial readers. There was nothing wrong with the light and not much wrong with the pitch. Gregory carefully played out the rest of the over, attempting nothing and mostly letting the ball go. Next over, Simon was beaten by the third ball, but so was the wicketkeeper and a bye resulted: the position did not permit us to refuse it to keep Simon on strike. Again Gregory played out the over, blocking this time. We had made one run, for the loss of Prasanth’s wicket, in eighteen balls. We needed nine off the remaining twelve. Simon and Gregory consulted and decided on a strategy. The next over would be bowled by the more erratic bowler, who, however, had three wickets already: after that there would be a final over from the opener, whose previous seven had cost only twenty.

Simon therefore abandoned caution and drove, uppishly but safely, down the ground. There was an easy two, but Simon, running to the danger end, pushed for three and got them. Six needed, but now Gregory was on strike. He has a defence, of sorts, but no shots. The field came in a bit. But, in the Biblical-sounding but apparently original words of Cliff Gladwin, winning a Test by two wickets off the last possible ball, “cometh the hour, cometh the man”. Instead of trying to push a single and get Simon on strike, Gregory simply and unexpectedly got all the runs himself, with three consecutive square cuts for two.

Scorecard <table id="scorecardframe"> <tr> <td> <table id="scorecard"><tr> <td>Gillard</td> <td> 1 (2 ct) </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Richard M</td> <td> 50 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Rasesh</td> <td> 43 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Arvind</td> <td> 5 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Kevin</td> <td> 1 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Roger</td> <td> 14 (1 ct) </td> </tr><tr> <td>Alex</td> <td> 7 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Aby</td> <td> 12 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Simon</td> <td> 12 n.o. (1 ct) </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Prashanth</td> <td> 6 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Gregory</td> <td> 6 n.o. </td> </tr></table></td><td class="gap"></td><td style="width:250"><table id="scorecard"> <tr> <td>Richard M</td> <td> 8-2-30-2 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Aby</td> <td> 8-1-32-0 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Gregory</td> <td> 4-0-30-0 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Simon</td> <td> 7-0-39-0 </td> </tr><tr> <td>Kevin</td> <td> 8-1-27-2 </td> </tr><tr class="alt"> <td>Prashant</td> <td> 4-0-12-3 </td> </tr></table> </td> </tr> </table>