Venturers Vs The Star, Wednesday June 8th

The Star 110-6, Venturers 92-6

We fielded, as we do. The Star graciously lent us a fielder as we were one short, indirectly because Imran had contracted covid (and sent a photograph of his positive test to the entire club). The substitutes gave us good value, with two catches, though both were fairly straightforward. The first came at the end of the second over, bowled by Saad, which up till then had been a bit loose. It even included a four, of which there were only ten in the match, but a tighter line brought a miscue to cover. The batsmen crossed, so since the change in the Laws does not apply until October and it was the last ball of the over, it was the new batsman who faced the next ball, from Krish. He played the wrong line and was pinged on the front pad. Harjeet, The Star’s universal factotum, was umpiring and gave it out. The batsman seemed sufficiently outraged that people behind the wicket wondered whether he had hit it. From in front, it was obvious that he had on the contrary missed it by an embarrassing distance and Harjeet’s decision, whether correct or not, was reasonable.

Anyway, it did us no good. Ade, who came next, played well especially against Saad and with the captain, Andy (rather than Harjeet for some reason) gradually tilted things back their way. Krish remained accurate; Farooq, who took over from him, did equally well. The strong wind possibly made it harder to control the ball from Saad’s end. At all events Gregory, who took over from him, was also less reliable, but he did break the partnership when Ade likewise miscued to a substitute, a different one by now, at cover. Soon after this, Andy charged Gregory before he had even delivered the ball. The result was a high full toss taken from neck height, but with the batsman a third of the way down the pitch, and miscued but into space: they ran three. Harjeet, umpiring at square leg, did nothing. The scorers complained that nobody had signalled the no-ball. It was explained to them that it wasn’t a no-ball, Harjeet’s judgement presumably being that it would have dropped as far as waist height by the time it reached the place where the batsman would normally be. The scorers, perhaps still indignant about Harjeet’s earlier decision, ignored him and wrote the no-ball in anyway. All this brought Andy down to Farooq’s end, and Farooq bowled him, so precisely removing a bail that he seemed to think at first that he had been stumped.

Another miscue off Gregory helped us. Yash was the catcher this time. He got one hand to the ball at first, appeared to have it under control, then lost it and then caught it in both hands, facing away from the batsman. Farooq remained accurate but we shed a few runs in the field around here, which may have made a difference in the end. Bruce and Yash finished off. Attempts to hit Bruce were, with a single exception, unsuccessful at best and in one case ended in getting bowled in a most undignified way. Attempts to hit Yash’s first over were no better but his second did go for slightly more than it should have, and we ended up feeling that we had conceded eight or ten runs more than we ought to have done.

Yash’s aggressive running works well when he bats with Varun, who has the same approach and is nearly as quick. It didn’t work quite so well with Sushil, but Sushil’s own hard-hitting approach was effective enough on its own terms. He dealt well with the quick left-armer who opened. Soon, though, he targeted the wrong ball from Mark at the other end. Harsh is also not an aggressive runner. He is also quite orthodox and punches the ball straight rather than aiming at cow corner. He and Yash were beginning to work out how to combine their contrasting styles when Yash, feet stuck, was cleaned up by the left-armer. Steve never got going and Harsh got into third gear but no more. However, they saved us from the collapse that could easily have followed. Eventually Steve tried to pull one that didn’t bounce and it was time for Krish. But he never got going either. It was Harsh who got out, though, neither back nor forward to a flattish leg-spinner. This is where we might have won it. Farooq and Krish, needing seven an over, with Simon who is good on slow pitches due next, was promising. But scoring was difficult, as it had been throughout, so it became necessary to force the pace a little. This comes with risks, and Krish hit a catch to mid-on. With fours nearly impossible the run rate started to climb, and by the time that Farooq made the same mistake as Steve we were almost lost anyway. Saad and Simon did what they could, and Bruce didn’t have to go in, but we weren’t close in the end.