Report by Daniel Mortlock:
We named a twelve for this evening's game, safe in knowledge that someone would drop out - which indeed they did. Then going down to ten wasn't in the plan, but fortunately there were several reserves keen and ready to step in . . . which they both did. Thus discombobulated, some mixed messaging went out about who was to start off, with the result that we played the first four overs of the match - we'd been invited to field - with just ten players on the ground with two waiting. To add to the sense that it just wasn't going to be our night, after we handed the new ball to NCI firsts player Monish Thorat, making his Remnants debut, with the idea that he'd bowl at full pace we looked to the striker's end to see a twelve-year-old, Ashwin Natarajan, taking guard - so both the new ball and our fastest bowler were immediately nullified. Monish (0/13) still came in at a decent clip and, even more impressively, Ashwin played him beautifully. With the other opener's non-existent footwork more than compensated for by his superb eye, the Sharks had the best of the early going, having reached 37/0 after 4.2 (six-ball) overs when James Cummins had his first two ball hit for boundaries.
From then on, however, it was basically all Remnants: James was near perfect for the rest of his spell, finishing with 2/10; and our other first-change bowler, Francois Rossouw, was on the money from ball one, finishing with 1/16 - a decent contribution given he wasn't even on the team sheet. With Quentin Harmer (1/32) also taking a wicket, we reached the 10-over change of ends the happier of the two sides, with the Sharks on 54/3.
While it took us a little while to get used to bowling into the wind from the other end - all the bowlers struggled with their line - we remained broadly in control. The star here was Faruk Kara (3/30), who repeatedly bamboozled the increasingly desperate batters, who'd started charging down the pitch at him. Faruk got mixed support from his fielders: on the one, hand Monish took his third catch (all insultingly easy, but still sufficient to equal Martin Heginbotham's and James Deacon's recent record for most dismissals on debut); on the other, 'keeper Hume Fisher got impatient waiting to complete a stumping chance and took the ball in front of the bowling crease, the square-leg umpire immediately (and correctly) calling no ball, thus adding two runs to Faruk's ledger through no fault of his own; and then captain Daniel Mortlock committed a howler when, having failed to complete a smooth one-handed pick up, didn't immediately go to pick up the ball, allowing the eagle-eyed batters to steal a second run where there should barely have been a first. Daniel (2/25) attempted redemption with ball in hand, only to start with two huge wind-assisted leg-side wides; he did finally get his line right, the main result of which was the sight of a disappointed fourteen-year-old boy trudging back to the pavilion, bowled first ball. We finished off with an over from Yash Verma (1/8) who responded to the offer of a slip with the assertion that there's no point as he'd be bowling big in-swingers . . . and promptly started with three big wides outside off-stump (particularly impressive given that the wind was blowing to leg). Still, he too eventually got his line right and cleaned up the last of the Sharks batters off the penultimate delivery, leaving them with a sub-par total of 138 all-out.
The sense that we'd wrested control of the game in the field was quickly affirmed in the first few overs of our innings as Tom Serby (35* retired off 24 balls) and Yash Verma (38* retired off 22 balls) smashed leg-side boundaries seemingly at will. Even after they both reitred, it rapidly became clear that our main problem wasn't a slowing in scoring - although both Lahiru Wijedasa and Hume Fisher were careful initially, having agreed that they could take the chance to bat "properly" - but the dawning realisation that several of our presumptive batters might not get a go (which in theory playing with retirements is meant to avoid). Monish had at least gotten a bowl; but Anand Kairamkonda hadn't been able to, so ended up with a TFC in his first game for the season; and James Robinson hadn't even been offered the ball and thus recorded his first TFC in his 97th Remnants game (an all-time record?). Even worse for James, this meant he was left behind in the three-way battle to be the season's top scorer, being stuck on 261 while Yash's innings had taken him to 298.
Still, most people seemed happy to bask in the evening sun and enjoy what was clearly going to be a very comfortable win. With Lahiru (19* off 22 balls) and Hume (26* off 22 balls) both remaining undefeated we completed a ten-wicket win for the first time since 2019, which was before we started playing with retirements as standard.
