Venturers Vs The Bell, Wednesday July 24th

The Bell 106-7 (20), Venturers 98-9 (20)

The mark of a good team is that they find a way to win. We found a way to lose.

After sixteen overs of the Bell’s innings the score was 65. Imran had been his usual self and had removed one opener through a smart slip catch by Charlie; Gregory had swindled the other opener; another dangerous batsman, badly dropped, had been cleaned up by Rob P soon after; Joji had been his usual self; there had been a ludicrous run-out. There had been some lapses as well, apart from the drop: Gregory had been a touch expensive and there had been some ground fielding errors, as well as a couple of half-chances. But we were in good shape. Bruce bowled the seventeenth over: it was tidy, but somehow still cost nine, and from there on things were not tidy and they got to a decent score, despite more run-outs.

We know that anything over a hundred can be hard to chase at Sulis: slow pitch, big outfield. Shreyas and Krish struggled, not completely unsuccessfully. Rubbaniy was sometimes able to time the ball and made some progress, but pressure was building and he attempted a single that never really existed and ran Krish out. Charlie and Joji came and went rapidly. Farooq connected well but didn’t clear deep mid-on. That was Shreyas, fielding for the opposition because they had only ever had ten, and he caught it well despite being completely unused to not keeping wicket. Dinesh had dropped an easier catch while doing the same duty earlier. Rubbaniy followed soon after Farooq got out, but Robbie and Dinesh batted sensibly and gradually hauled us back into a possibly winning position. They needed less than a run a ball from the last three overs. All they had to do was keep batting sensibly. But Dinesh swung and missed; Imran survived comfortably enough but did not do more; and Robbie also swung and missed. That left too much to the tail: Bruce clattered a four at the start of the last over, but it was too late by then.