BBC Evergreens Vs Venturers, Sunday May 21st

Venturers 193-4, BBC Evergreens 100-6

We made far too many runs, far too slowly. This was a declaration match with, in principle, eighty overs to be bowled. We batted, and at the end of the fourteenth, the score was 25 for none. Charlie was well on his way to his final score of 12 from 62 balls, all in singles except for a two from his sixtieth ball. Jaideep was quicker, but not by much at first. In the twenty-fourth over Charlie, exhausted by his two, was leg before: the score, boosted by numerous byes, was 90. We thought we weren’t doing well. Jaideep’s legs started to give way and he eventually hobbled off, having made 56 at a reasonable pace in the end but slowing down again towards the end. Krish got out quickly and Mub remained also cautious for a long time. Kamal created his usual cheerful chaos, and that should have been enough for a declaration; but Imran didn’t quite believe that after so slow a start we could already have enough runs, and allowed Mub, Kamal and finally Joji to keep going. Only when Mub reached 50 and we had used half the overs did he pull the plug.

BBC Evergreens (this name is the result of a recent merger) did have some people capable of getting runs, but not that many runs that quickly. Dinesh bowled one of them at once. Joji and Subrata bowled two more. One potentially dangerous partnership remained, but both members miscued, one off Krish and one off Gregory. One more wicket for Joji left them with nothing to do but block; but the two who were in now are both very capable and they proceeded to do just that for the rest of the match, untempted even by Bruce.