St Johns Vs Venturers, Sunday June 4th

St John's 176-8, Venturers 178-4

This was a long-awaited match. The first game between these two sides was supposed to have taken place as long ago as 2018, but all the attempts have been cancelled for one reason or another. Back in 2018 St John’s were very doubtful of their ability to field a suitable team (it rained) but now they have a well-organised XI, and we did well to beat them. They coped with Dinesh and Subrata’s opening spells as well as any of our opponents have, although only one of them made any actual runs at first. He had got to sixteen on his own when he was run out by Kamal’s direct hit. The other opener, who had hardly faced a ball at that point, took over efficiently. Anything loose was likely to go for four across the fast and not very big outfield, particularly if it could be hit down the slope. The new batsman was very unorthodox in a way that would probably have got him into deep trouble against spin, but he survived for a while against the quicker bowling and was able to hit hard when he got the opportunity. Subrata bowled him, and soon after that Dinesh bowled the opener. This started another lopsided partnership as one of the new batters contributed 18 of the next 22, mostly off Krish. His approach failed badly as soon as we tried a spinner. Krish, Gregory and Joji kept the brakes on for a long while after that, but with no luck: Subrata for once put down a catch in the deep and Krish had a series of unsuccessful LBW appeals. Eventually Gregory started to leak runs and Mihir was given a bowl, unsuccessfully this time, but then the stand was ended by another run-out, this one mainly caused by a mix-up. Bruce sensibly backed himself to win the race to the stumps rather than throw, although he claimed that at the end he was trying to lob the ball into the stumps and it only turned into a dive because he fell over. Joji removed the other partner: Tom, Dinesh and Tobias kept things under control at the end, with Tobias picking up his first Venturers wicket.

We felt that 174 was a better score than we should have allowed them but not out of reach. When we saw them bowl, we started to doubt this. There was very little available in the way of runs, and a constant threat. Jaideep especially could do little more than survive, with only two scoring shots in his first eighteen balls. They did survive, and we felt that if one of them got out we might easily collapse. The bowler, but not the wicketkeeper, seemed very convinced by an LBW appeal, which underestimated his own inswing and also missed Jaideep’s inside edge: there were no actual chances. But after seven overs the score was 12, and then the inswing bowler was taken off and puzzlingly did not bowl again. His replacement was a bit looser but there was no respite at the other end: however, the looser bowler was also dangerous, and eventually Jaideep walked across his stumps and did not manage an inside edge this time. Kamal’s array of flicks and nudges made things hard for the bowlers and Krish, even without Jaideep to tell him to stay calm, remembered to do that. They had got us close to 100 when Kamal lifted a push to the on side slightly off the grass and was out to a really good alert catch: one of those ones that doesn’t look spectacular but actually requires great awareness and skill. Joji joined Krish and they gradually accelerated to the point where the run rate was no longer a concern: we needed twenty, from seven overs and with seven wickets in hand. Krish got to 50, which he had never quite managed for the Venturers before, but then he edged to the wicketkeeper. Tom was leg before, neither forward nor back, and Joji hit over a straight one. We needed only a dozen, but after Dinesh and Subrata there were Tobias, Mihir, Bruce and Gregory to follow, none of whom can be relied on with the bat. Jaideep wanted Bruce to go in next, but it did not come to that. Instead Dinesh, twice, and Subrata, swung successfully for the ropes, giving us a win that was less comfortable than the scorecard suggests.