Venturers Vs Bristol Venturers, Sunday May 18th

Bristol Venturers 153, Bath Venturers 154-7

For the first time this season we played in dryish conditions against and with eleven people, all trying to win. Chris H seemed particularly keen on the idea. Shabi took slightly longer to catch on and gave away thirteen in his first over, nine of them in wides, but only another thirteen (six wides) in the other five overs he bowled. Anything on the stumps, from his preferred round the wicket line, the ball would swing wildly down leg, but if he pushed it wide of off stump, it stayed there. Once he found the right line he was very effective. Chris brought one back in to the right-handed opener and bowled him. A competent Australian appeared. Chris brought one back into him too and the ball went, via inside edge and pad, to Simon, who was too busy appealing for LBW to think of catching it. This was an expensive mistake, but not ruinous. Ivor the left-handed opener, frustrated by Shabi’s always consistent length and by now reliable line, hit a catch to mid-on. The seam movement on offer encouraged Simon to use Aby and Nikhil rather than spin, and they each got a wicket early on. Aby got his with the first and worst of six identical balls, all pitching on a good length just outside the right-hander’s off stump and shaping away. The batsman groped hopefully for the last five, but the first was faced by Rohan, a left-hander, who got strangled down the leg side. Nikhil’s wicket came from a little width and a sharp but inelegant gully catch by Chris M.

The biggest stand of the innings followed: 51 in thirteen overs between the new right-hander, who made two, and the Australian, who took 19 off the next two overs. After that we simply kept the Australian off strike, and conceded only another 19 in the next nine. On his first attempt to break loose, he was dropped again, at cover this time, off Aby. His second, aimed at Matt and Gregory, was briefly more successful, but then he gave Simon a second catch. Matt removed the blocker, a sharp catch by Manoj, and the lower order played a few shots, but Simon stumped the most promising of them and Murali cleaned up the tail just before the overs ran out.

Matt and Ian set off at a steady pace and were already comfortably ahead of the rate when Ian picked out the Australian at cover. The Australian bowled too, and immediately trapped Chris M, whose feet failed to move when asked. Matt and Chris H made no attempt to attack him, but accumulated runs largely off the other bowlers, in a mainly non-violent way. They did that so well that at the start of the thirtieth over, bowled by the Australian, we needed eighteen to win with eight wickets left. In that over Matt got bowled, playing only half forward, and Manoj was trapped on the crease. At least, it was probably the thirtieth over. The scorebook insists that the Australian bowled both the seventh over and the eighth, so something is wrong. The scorers also surprised the Bristol captain by telling him that his opening bowler had run out of overs at a time when he thought he had two left, but they seem to have been right that time. In any case, the leg-spinner who bowled instead removed Chris, splendidly caught in the deep, Murali and Shubi, as they tried to finish things quickly (Chris and Murali) or prodded (Shubi). By then, though, the scores were level. As Shubi had fallen to the last ball of an over, Aby watched Nikhil from the non-striker’s end and willed him not to play the scoop. Resisting temptation, or warned by Aby’s stare, Nikhil cut instead, giving us a simple win.