Report by Daniel Mortlock:
The letters "CSK" are instantly recognisable to everyone in the cricketing world as the shorthand name for the Chennai Super Kings, one of the most successful teams in the Indian Premier League. But that might be about to change with the arrival of the superbly-named Cambourne Super Kings, a friendlies-only side formed by a group of CSK fans based in, er, Cambourne. Coming into this evening's game they were a completely unknown quantity - no intel had been provided by either of our Cambourne-based regulars, TK or Qaiser (who was down to play tonight before getting injured).
So, when we lost the toss and were inserted in glorious conditions, we just went with a conventional batting line-up - which worked pretty well. After losing an early wicket (John Young, bowled for 4 off 13 balls), Martin Heginbotham (34* off 24 balls, two of which were hit over the pavilion into Oxford Road gardens) and Nabeen Balayasoderan (30* off 17 balls) raced to retirement. There was almost a retirement of a different kind when one of the CSK fielders went to stop a hard-hit drive, only to almost be decapitated when the ball flew off a bump in the outfield; he did well to even try to get his hands up to stop it - and in the end it was just as well it missed him completely and zipped to the boundary. The only thing which really went wrong for us during this phase of the game was when Paul Jordan came off after an umpiring stint and realised he'd left his sunglasses in the coat his replacement was now wearing, although the only response to his requests from the sideline to retrieve them was the droll observation that "They're on your head!" - as indeed they were.
After 10 (six-ball) overs we were 80/1, which was obviously healthy . . . although our middle order wasn't quite of the same firepower, and in the end we failed to even double our half-way total. Still, James Robinson (26 off 20 balls), Prabhdeep Singh (12 off 13 balls, untroubled before coming so far down the track that he was stumped even though the 'keeper wasn't standing up) and Quentin Harmer (17 off 16 balls) all scored well. Skipper Daniel Mortlock (6* off 11 balls) then ensured we didn't set too high a target - we want CSK to play us again next year - leaving Dave Green (2* off 2 balls) to get his first Remnants runs of the year.
Our fielding plan was dictated by the extremely asymmetric conditions: there was the choice of bowling with the wind from the Tennis Court end but with a tiny leg-side boundary; or bowling into the wind from the, er, non-Tennis Court end, safe in the knowledge there were acres of space to absorb any pulls and hoiks. It was honours-even early on: Naveen Chouksey (0/20) and Faruk Kara (2/32) bowled well but struggled to maintain their line in the face of both the strong wind and some umpire-dependent wide-calling; but one of the CSK openers made it to a pretty untroubled retirement, taking his side to 54/2 after 8 overs, only a smidge under the required rate.
A few overs later, through a combination of good play and good fortune, we had the game won. The good fortune was mainly that we just happened to have the perfect bowlers to contain their middle order, as Daniel (1/10), Quentin (1/19) and Paul (1/7, starting with a wicket-maiden) all proved nigh-on impossible to get away: their 10 overs yielded just three boundaries. The "could do no wrong" state of affairs was illustrated in microcosm by Daniel's freak wicket: after a slightly leg-side yorker struck the batter on the pads, the ball ricocheting back towards the bowler, but with sufficient spin that it turned shaply back on the first bounce, looping towards the stumps, which were reached with just enough momentum to dislodge the bails. We also fielded well with Martin taking a well-judged grab in the deep, John diving forward to take a catch just off the ground at short cover, James holding onto what most of us were convinced with an edge while standing up (not given), and some great ground fielding by Dave, Neeban and Paul.
That said, we didn't get everything right, as Paul belied the fact that this was his 449th Remnants game to ignore the basic instruction given to all junior bowlers that they should get back to the stumps to receive a fielder's throw. So when the batters called for an overly-optimistic run we - and Paul in particular - just watched as Naveen's throw flew past the unattended wicket with the batter yards short. Daniel was at least backing up, but was already in the process of putting his hands to his face in anguish and so fumbled the stop. The batters saw the chance for a second run, which was again a bit risky, and they were again well short when Martin's throw bounced past the stumps a second time, carefully watched by Paul in his trademark teapot pose a few yards away. Still, the captain's stern words did seem to have an effect as, just two balls later, Paul was dutifully waiting over the stumps to collect the return (again from Martin) to complete a much tighter run out.
We got to finish things off by giving the ball to some of the batters who don't normally get the chance to show their "second" skill. First up was Prabhdeep (0/4), who delivered the fastest over of the game, repeatedly getting the ball up into the batter's chest - and then carried out his captain's instruction to try a slow yorker so perfectly that it beat both the batter and the 'keeper. The coup de grace was then administered by Martin (2/3) who, having offered to bowl "whatever you want me to", obediently sent down an immaculate over of big-turning leggies, twice turning the ball from leg-stump to hit the top of off, all to cries of "bowled Shane!" from his suitably impressed teammates.
