Venturers Vs Ram, Thursday July 18th

Venturers 88, The Ram 84-8

This was a week of cricket; it was The Venturers second game in two days and England had just been crowned World Cup winners a few days before. Just like in the World Cup Final this game was arguably decided by applying the lesser known MCC laws of the game.

Simon was absent; a number of the team voiced this was opportunity to bat first and put runs on the board. The toss was won and the Venturers would bat first, after negotiation from the opposition it was agreed retiring would occur at 50 (which turned out to be completely unnecessary) and minimum of 7 bowlers; a compromise on their usual rules of all bowlers bowl 2 overs and as we had plenty of bowlers and usually use at least 6 it seemed reasonable.

Batting first may not have been a sensible decision on a slow damp pitch as runs were hard to come by. Jamie was bowled early by the opening spinner. Jaideep and Ashwyn built a solid partnership, Jaideep played exquisitely any balls down leg side and Ashwyn looked capable of hitting the boundary more regularly and was doing so until a very good catch was taken from a shot which looped high into the air. From 41-1 off 7 overs we proceeded to lose wickets regularly and the scoreboard stuttered along. There was only one boundary in the final 10 overs, a six from CB, with all batsmen struggling on the very slow and soft wicket. We lost our final 5 wickets for 5 runs in the last three overs and posted 83 all out.

Or so we thought; during the innings change the Ram’s wicket keeper declared that the ball had hit a helmet on the ground behind him. Which had gone unnoticed by the umpires. As such, and accordingly to MCC rules 28.3, 5 penalty runs were awarded and added to our score setting the Ram 89 to win.

Given the meagre total to defend our bowling needed to be tight. Fortunately on the whole it was. Ian and Jamie opened. After being hit for a four in the first over Ian found his line and late movement to take 3-12 off his four overs. Jamie took a wicket maiden in his first over then took himself off after a second maiden, the idea was he could come back on if required. CB came on after Jamie and bowled his 2 overs at only a cost of 5 runs. This left the Ram on around 20-4 off 8 overs.

At this point the Ram built a partnership, Fahad and Imran kept it tight, leaving the Ram on 28 off 12 overs. At this point Fahad had a very uncharacteristic over conceding 4 boundaries. James came on and the Ram attacked, as often happens though James responded by taking wickets. Despite the Ram’s best efforts of chasing the total, James and Ashwyn took regular wickets, two a piece, as the pressure built. At seven wickets down the ram needed 32 off the final 3 overs, this turned to 18 off two and 13 off the final over. Ashwyn, channelling Jofra’s heroics, was determined to bowl final over and was promptly dispatched for a six. The field spread, Ashwyn tightened the line and we managed to limit the scoring. The Ram ending on 84, would have won by 1 run if it was not for the honest admission of a rogue deflection onto a helmet. The opposition were as magnanimous in defeat as Kane Williamson less than a week before and it gave plenty to discuss over a plentiful spread of sandwiches and chips in The Ram afterwards.

PS. The Ram’s version of events from the perspective of the wicket keeper and captain is available here.