Allsorts Vs Venturers, Sunday September 11th

Venturers 209-7, Allsorts 135-5

We mistakenly allowed ourselves to be talked into batting first, which condemned the match to a draw. Seventy overs were to be bowled, with the understanding that the side batting first would not go beyond 35 overs unless that would be absurd (for example, you are 100-6). We could, and perhaps should, have declared a bit earlier, but it is unlikely that it would have made much difference. The real trouble is that the pitch at Congresbury is flat and it is unlikely that a side will be bowled out in 35 overs.

Imran and Maurice, the captains, also bargained over the retirement rule and eventually settled on 60. Maurice was anxious to have one, mainly because of Bhargab, but he need not have worried. Jaideep pushed to cover and called Bhargab for a single. It was tight but certainly on, but there was a little hesitation. Even so, Bhargab would not have been run out but for two things: the throw hit the stumps, which he didn’t realise might happen, and he had made no attempt at all to run his bat in, let alone dive. He was in fact carrying it at waist height and his feet were still a matter of a step from safety when the disaster happened. Routinely putting the bat down would have got him home easily.

That was a setback, but they had given us a decent start by then and we weren’t about to run out of batting. Steve and Jaideep continued serenely for a while: not especially fast, but not slowly either. First ball after the drinks break Steve played inside one that clipped his off stump. Farooq was briefly more energetic but then the same thing happened to him. Around this time Jaideep had an escape. He launched a lofted drive, not something he often does, and mid-off moved round to catch it. Mid-off was the wife of the opening bowler, roped in at the last minute. She had been competent in the field, using the long barrier effectively which if nothing else showed that she knew what she ought to be doing. There was no reason to suppose that she wouldn’t simply take the catch, and she seemed to have done so for a moment, but the ball spun through her hands and struck her on the head with an alarming sound. Fortunately she had taken the pace off it and after a brief hug from her husband, who was conveniently stationed at extra cover, she was able to carry on, visibly annoyed with herself. Jaideep, anyway, reached the 60 limit not long after, and it was left to Krish to add some pace. This he did quite efficiently, helped by Miles losing his run-up a lot: the Pownalls were playing against us and Robbie had bowled an accurate spell. Krish had successive brief support from Dinesh (who lobbed a catch to Farooq, who was fielding for them as they were one short – Dinesh had dropped Steve earlier), Harsh (preposterously run out), Varun (less preposterously run out), Imran (caught at mid-on in the last over), and Bruce (didn’t face a ball). [Oxford comma used to annoy the Health Secretary.] We probably didn’t need all those runs, but we didn’t have any idea what was going to happen next, and it surprised us.

What did happen next was that we bowled well and fielded even better. Imran, Dinesh and Varun gave nothing away at all and soon the asking rate was so high that it became purely a matter of trying to take wickets. If we had known that would happen we could of course have declared earlier and given ourselves more time, but it wasn’t what we were expecting at all. The trouble was that we couldn’t take wickets. The openers, one of them Miles, simply took no risks. Krish was tried to no effect. As there hadn’t been any real spin bowled in our innings we had hopes that Gregory might be effective, but they took no risks against him either. Eventually Farooq removed Miles through an excellent and carefully planned catch by Jaideep, and Robbie was a bit more positive, but still nothing happened. Gregory resorted to trying to buy a wicket with leg-breaks, deliberate near-wides and so on, as well as the usual accidental near-wides, but if that’s what you want, Bruce does it better and he did. He removed Robbie, a good catch by Dinesh, and bowled the first of two players called Ali. Dinesh returned and removed the second Ali, and Harsh, having a rare bowl, dislodged the opener who was given out very slowly by Maurice. We made no more progress after that.