Rode Vs Venturers, Sunday June 15th

Rode 226-8, Venturers 136 a.o.

Shubi and Siddanth started steadily enough. Only one of the openers seemed able to score runs and Siddanth soon bowled the other, bringing in a young batsman with a similar mission to occupy the crease. This was sensible enough of him, as his partner was fairly fluent. It was therefore perhaps unfortunate in a way that Gregory’s plan for him worked immediately, as after that we were leaking runs at both ends. The first time the ball went into the cornfield we were told that nobody had got one back from there all season, but our experiences at Chew Stoke have raised that part our game and we did not have to resort to the spares. Soon after that the opener edged Gregory and Harsh, keeping wicket, reacted astonishingly quickly with one glove to catch it. A second good catch, by Doug off Simon, and a wicket from Doug himself, put us in good shape at 128-5 but thereafter we slightly lost control. Our next breakthrough came only near the end, and in a rather undignified way via the local rule that forbids hits over the netting into the housing estate. Siddanth was the bowler thus treated: it is not clear whether the wicket counts as his, but the next one, a comprehensive yorking, did, and the last one we got, a run-out he executed, did not.

We never got close to making the runs. Chris M was out quite quickly. Siddanth and Nikhil kept the score moving briskly for a while, and Manoj took over once Nikhil was out, but we knew we had not much more to come and 70-2 after 16 over was not as solid as it looked. And indeed it went rapidly downhill from there, though Simon batted well and surprised himself by hitting a six, at the safe end, and Parth was a threat while he lasted. The highlight of the innings, though, was finding out what happens when Harsh connects. He was an obvious over-the-net candidate, but fortunately he was facing away from it. One of his shots went towards it all the same, but along the ground off a bottom edge; but he did manage one full connection and a satisfyingly thumping boundary. Then he got out, Gregory missed and Simon, with Steve Dent for company, put one up in the air.