Bristol T20 Vs Venturers, Sunday July 6th

Bristol Academicals 107-9, Bath Venturers 108-2; Bath Venturers 126-7, Bristol Venturers 82-9

There is always some organisational problem at the T20, not surprisingly as it is quite complex. Usually it is minor, but this time it took the form of Cardiff failing to show up at all. As we were the non-Bristol side and were actually there, we got to play the first two matches and then go home: in any case, Bristol Venturers hadn’t all arrived at that point.

Match 1: Bristol Academicals 107-9, Bath Venturers 108-2

In fact, Bristol Academicals hadn’t all arrived either, but they weren’t going to. we had plenty of players so we lent them Matt R and Gregory. The openers made a good start but in the fifth over, with 26 already on the board, one of them - well, Matt, actually - lofted Siddanth into Doug’s hands at mid-on. Chris picked up a low return catch from the new batsman and then Shubi took over. While Parth sent down four tidy overs at the other end to keep the pressure on, he demolished the middle order with his brisk inswing, mostly directed at off stump but complemented, when he did once stray to leg, by a demonstration by Alex of what proper wicket-keepers do: take leg-side catches without diving because you are just in the right place already. Sanket removed the opener, who had watched all this with growing alarm from the non-striker’s end, and also gave Alex a chance to demonstrate how to do stumpings too. Nikhil caught a good return catch and then found himself bowling to Gregory, so he asked Matt, umpiring, whether Gregory could bat. Instead of giving the obvious answer (“No.”) Matt replied “well, he plays the cut shot quite well”. So Nikhil pitched short, and Gregory cut it for four, giving him more runs against the Venturers than for them this season. Convinced by the results of the experiment and having no further use for Gregory, Nikhil pitched it up and bowled, and conceded a couple more to number 11 off the last ball.

Matt H and Kartik took an over and a half to settle in and then Matt launched the competent-looking opening bowler for two fours and a six. Kartik, not wanting to be left out, hit the first ball of the next over for an even more comprehensive six and, with the exception of one quiet over, they were completely untroubled. After seven overs, with only thirty needed, Bristol gave Gregory a bowl, which made no difference at first, but in his second over Kartik missed and was stumped. Sanket was given the chance to finish it off, and nearly did, but with the scores level he was given out caught at the wicket. That was also off Gregory, so, after winning a match in which our bowlers took none of the wickets a week earlier, we won one in which our bowlers took all the wickets.

Match 2: Bath Venturers 126-7, Bristol Venturers 82-9

Matt H made his and Kartik’s usual violent start but this time Matt got out, for 19, before Kartik had even received a second ball. Bristol Venturers were short of regular bowlers, although their occasional bowlers did quite a good job, and Kartik took over the violence for a bit. Sanket was subtler, and held the innings together after Kartik got out and Matt R and Manoj never got going. Chris H was more successful, and Siddhant, Parth and Nikhil all contributed. All the same, we weren’t very confident of defending 126.

We need not have worried. Shubi repeated his act from the first match, most spectacularly bowling the very dangerous Rohan Torkildsen first ball, but even before that we were in total control. Chris H, Siddanth, Gregory and Shubi were all accurate and the pressure led to a run-out and two catches, one off Siddanth and one off Gregory. When Nikhil hit the stumps with his first ball, at the beginning of the fifteenth over, Bristol were 48-6 and although the tail-enders did slightly better, Parth’s return catch and another run-out stopped them again.

With that, we had won the tournament again, and most of us went home, though a few stayed to play for Bristol A against Bristol V.