Bratton Vs Venturers, Sunday June 25th

Venturers 247, Bratton 122

We could have won this by a lot more, but that doesn’t mean that we were always overwhelmingly better. In fact, for the first few overs after we (Gregory, as Imran was still making his way over from Bristol) won the toss and batted, they had the better of it. We agreed 40 overs each way rather than the originally proposed 35, but neither side made it to 35 overs anyway.

Jaideep and Ritvij opened. Jaideep made a hundred here last year, but this time he played back when he should have played forward and was leg before. He stood in the crease for a moment and felt he had to explain afterwards to the opposition that it was from disappointment at having got out the same way again rather than any doubt about the correctness of the decision. Ritvij also did not get far enough forward. You will get away with that most of the time at this level, but not now. The ball pitched on middle and leg and grazed his outside edge before hitting the top of off.

By this time Kamal had been in for a couple of overs and was showing how far he has adapted to 40-over cricket and English conditions by leaving anything he didn’t have to play at. That gave Hrithik some licence. He got off to a rapid start because he was bowled three or four bad balls early on. The ground is not very big, and the wires that used to run across it have now been put underground: the nets at cow corner are a clear and manageable target. Hrithik hit them several times. Kamal dabbed to third man a lot – as usual, it took the opposition a while to work out that he was doing it on purpose – and nudged, and even played a firm square cut when given the opportunity, but he was happy to be Hrithik’s accompanist and we didn’t see the scoop for a long time. Hrithik lost the ball in the unmown hay meadow and reached fifty very quickly, but the pace slowed slightly after that as Bratton’s bowlers worked out where to bowl to him. What they didn’t do was threaten to get him out, or Kamal either.

At the drinks interval, Hrithik had 96. Straight after that he was dropped near the boundary (a very difficult chance) and the ball bounced away for four. Bruce, Ritvij and Gregory persuaded Imran that Hrithik should retire at the end of the over but he was well caught at mid-on before that. Joji and Kamal continued for a bit amid the unexpected rain, but really the collapse had started. Kamal got to fifty, which was no less than he deserved, but he and everybody else found creative ways to get out. Only Abhijeet contributed anything much, and that included a five from overthrows.

We thought we had plenty of runs, though. One opener played back instead of forward to Dinesh’s third ball. The other, left-handed, slashed Imran high to Jaideep at slip, who couldn’t quite hold on. The new batsman miscued into space on the off side, set off, stuttered and was run out by Hrithik’s direct hit. Now there were two left-handers in, both capable. Abhijeet replaced Imran but seemed to have difficulty finding his rhythm. Imran decided to switch him to the other end and gave Ritvij an over to achieve that. It was a tidy over apart from the second ball, which was a drag-down that the batsman miscued into Hrithik’s hands.

Joji bowled the next over from what had been Abhijeet’s end, to the right-hander who had come in and who had taken a single off Ritvij somewhere along the way. He bowled him immediately. Two balls later he won what appeared to have been a slightly speculative LBW appeal: the umpire’s view was that it was hitting leg stump only, but that’s all it needs to do. The LBW appeal next ball was anything but speculative, as the batsman was hit on the foot in front of middle. There was no hat trick, and no further bowling for Ritvij, nor for Abhijeet or for Joji yet.

Instead, Bruce and Tobias had a go. The new right-hander swung aggressively at Bruce. That is often quickly fatal but he made good connection several times and started to play confidently. Anyway, the score was 21-6: what was he supposed to do? Tobias did not get hit, but he did let go a straight full toss which the batsman swung at and missed. It was deemed a no-ball. This one is tricky. The ball-tracking used at the IPL has taught us that something that passes as this did well below stump high is probably below waist high at the crease, which is what matters: but IPL bowlers bowl faster and therefore flatter than we do. Also this batsman wasn’t particularly tall. So on he went, soon losing his left-handed partner who flicked Bruce to square leg and another, who was more conventionally bowled by Tobias. Then he found a solid partner, and Imran tried Joji again, Jaideep and Gregory in an unsuccessful attempt to break the partnership. Jaideep won an LBW decision but everybody round the bat had heard and seen the edge and we withdrew the appeal. Both batsmen were now scoring quite freely, and eventually Imran did what he should have done all along and brought back Dinesh, who immediately bowled the senior one, and Abhijeet. There was still time for the number 11 to make half a dozen runs entirely in overthrows before Dinesh bowled him too.