BaNES Vs Venturers, Tuesday June 15th

BaNES 167-2, Venturers 77-6

This match was supposed to be played at Lansdown, but was moved at short notice to Peasedown because of a double booking. That put us a player down, because the new venue was not compatible with Farooq’s duties as a parent; we were two down because Ritvij had failed to realise that it was Tuesday, not Wednesday, and three down because Jaideep was injured. So seven of us turned up at the ground and wondered where Imran was and who was going to keep wicket.

Imran appeared at the last moment, and Rob was saved from having to keep wicket by the BaNES reserve wicket-keeper, who had come along to watch and played for us. He had a rather difficult time of it, keeping to unknown bowlers, and muffed a stumping or two, but he did a great deal better than any of us could possibly have done. Moreover, BaNES lent us sufficient fielders, perhaps because they felt that they had caused part of the problem by changing the venue. So once play actually started, we were fully equipped.

Imran’s late arrival did have two effects, though. It meant that Bruce was captain, which is all right, but Imran is perhaps better at it; and it meant that Adi rather than Imran opened the bowling with CB. Our normal strategy is to frustrate the batsmen because they can’t get much off either CB or Imran, and probably lose at least a wicket or two, and then they try to attack Gregory and someone else indiscriminantly and lose more wickets. It doesn’t usually work, not in full, but some part of it usually does. Adi, though, would have been better suited to bowling the middle overs: opening, he was a little too attacking and leaked runs. CB wasn’t at his best either. We did get one wicket during this phase, but the credit was due to Rob, who recovered well from a fractional misfield and calmly took his time before throwing accurately to the correct end.

BaNES had a self-imposed retire-at-30 rule, which Bruce agreed to impose on us also, though in the end it made little difference. So a series of people swung the bat briskly for 30 and then disappeared, only to reappear as fielders a couple of overs later. Gregory and Imran were the main victims of this batswinging, although Imran did induce a miss to a straight ball, the only wicket our bowlers claimed all evening. Bruce and Alex finished off, without anything changing much.

As we had no batting to speak of at all, with a single exception, we were no threat. The one exception was Adi, who played very nicely until he hit the 30 rule, though at a pace more suited to a longer match. But if he had done what CB did and pushed on he might have done what CB did and get out immediately, in which case we would have struggled to get to 30 between us. Rob kept Adi company for the first few overs, and then got a good ball: CB chipped a catch to cover. Imran provided most of the entertainment, including a sudden six over square leg. We hadn’t actually dropped a catch, unless you count a drive back at Alex when he was bowling, the sort that sometimes sticks but at this level mostly doesn’t. So it was left to our opponents to do that, and Imran got amusingly dropped in the covers when the wrong fieldsman called for a catch. After Imran missed and Adi reached the limit, we finished off with a succession of fours and fives, apart from Alex who miscued straight away. Adi didn’t get back in: Duncan and Bruce got out, but Ian (the loaned wicketkeeper) and Gregory, who surprised everyone by slogging a boundary through cow corner, were still there at the end.