Remnants vs. Cambridge University Thirds

Just over a year ago we took on the Cambridge University Thirds with an absolutely top-notch Remnants side and competed well until the clouds rolled in mid-way through our ultimately unsuccessful chase. This evening we found ourselves taking on the same opposition - training kit, fielding drills, general sense of superiority - but without the likes of J-P Joubert and Neeban Balayasoderan (both having moved away over the winter) and only two senior league regulars in our side: Seb Hammersley and Qaiser Ahmed.

Initially, an early finish seemed unlikely as the CU3 bowlers sent down lots of big wides, which we'd agreed to re-bowl on the assumption that (in contrast to last night) these were proper cricketers who could land the ball on the cut strip. That said, when the bowlers did get their line right they proved almost impossible to hit, partly because they bowled some fast or big-spinning deliveries, mainly because of the variable bounce - the pitch was almost as bad as the one used last week's Lord's Test. Seb Hammersley (10 off 22 balls) and Neil Grover (1 off 23 balls, the second slowest innings on record for Remnants) did well to survive to the fifth (eight-ball) over; but the fact that there had been just five scoring shots to this point was perhaps the more important considderation. At the exact mid-point of our innings we were just 26/4, so even with all the wides (eight in the end) we were pretty clearly going to finish in time to watch the football. We did manage something of an acceleration thanks to Sujay Iyer (a very proper 19* off 27 balls) and Qaiser Ahmed (12 off 15 balls), but nobody else made it to double figures and our final total 75/7 was the lowest first innings in a Remnants game since we restricted NCI to 69/9 back in 2023.

We headed out determined to at least make our opposition work for their victory and started brilliantly. Our opening attack of Qaiser Ahmed (0/13) and Daniel Mortlock (1/9) bowled top quality spells, combining pace and accuracy - and of course getting some help from the pitch - to really test the CUC top order. They repeatedly beat the bat or induced false shots and were far more consistent than any of the opposition bowlers had been. We also backed them up in the field, with some great stops and quick movement to deny the batters quick singles. The real star here was 'keeper Marcus Baker who took a sharp catch standing up to Daniel and then also came up to the stumps for Qaiser's third over, making a number of clean takes that brought to mind Alex Carey's lightning takes of Michael Neser and Scott Boland in the winter's Ashes. Two balls before the end of the fifth over the score was just 20/1, exactly the same as ours had been at that point and, astonishingly, below the pitifully low required rate. We didn't really have any illusions about crafting a miracle win . . .

. . . but neither did we expect the game to be over 19 balls later. The surviving opener flashed at Qaiser's last two balls, hitting slightly streaky boundaries; then the new batter, who wasn't in control of any of the first four balls he'd faced (all dots), suddenly started smashing everything. Our change bowlers did give a bit too much width, giving the batters the freedom to swing safely, although both were unlucky: the scorebook shows Naveen Chouksey's over as lasting nine balls, the last of which was hit for six, meaning his figures should have been 0/28 rather than 0/34 (which would have moved him down from 4th to =21st on the full unrestricted table of least economical spells); and Sujay Iyer (0/18) had a pretty straightforward catch dropped by Daniel in exactly the spot Sujay had placed him. The full sequence (4 4 | 1 4 6 1 2 4 4 6 6 | 2 1 . 4 1 4 B 6) of 61 runs from 19 balls was scarcely believeable and meant the students had won with an incredible 64 balls to spare (equal third worst loss for us in that regard), which at least saved us the indignity of enduring another eight overs of ball-fetching.