Report by Daniel Mortlock:
Over a post-match drink the opposition organiser, Imran Maqbool (yes, actually named in honour of Imran Khan), said AVEVA were "scared to play Remnants", apparently because we're such a strong club. This was simultaneously very nice to hear (particularly in a season where, so far, we've lost twice as many games as we've won) but also a bit disturbing since the club's whole ethos is about being relaxed and welcoming, including to our opposition. And while we end up fielding quite a strong side out today, it was only an hour prior to the start time that we even made it up to a full eleven (eventually a twelve) when NCI's league opposition cancelled, leading to rush of messages asking if there was still a spot free. Our late recruits, Yash Verma and Kaleem Chattha, ended up shifting what otherwise would have probably been a balanced game decisively in our favour: Yash top-scored for us; and then Kaleem had the best bowling figures for either side.
Having won the toss yet again thanks to our magic coin, we of course opted to bat in the hottest conditions - it was about 30 degrees at the start of the game, but down to around 26 degrees by the time we finished. Yash (37 off 32 balls) and James Robinson (18 off 24 balls) once again combined well with extras, putting on a 77-run opening partnership. After a little mid-innings blip during which the best of the AVEVA bowlers induced a collapse of 3/20 in the space of 3 (six-ball) overs, we then got our second good partnership of the day between Tom Serby (28* off 35 balls) and Seb Hammersley (37* off 24 balls). That said, the main entertainment was their battle of wills about whether there was a second run or not; given that their partnership included 25 singles and just 4 twos, it would seem Tom was the decisive victor here. (It would have been 24 and 5 but for the fact that on one of the few occasions they did come back for a second run James, now umpiring, called Tom for one short for only tapping his bat on the line. We looked like being a little under-cooked at 115/3 after 16 (six-ball) overs, but some late hitting by Seb got us up to 150/3.
Our efforts with ball in hand were mixed: when our bowlers got their lines right they were simply too good for most of the AVEVA batters, who struggled to both score and survive; but at least one ball in three was either short, wide or short and wide and the resultant free hits scooted to the boundary more often than not. The result was that, while we were always on top, we weren't safe until the final few overs. The absolute star with the ball was Kaleem (3/10) who, perhaps channelling his frustrations after his golden duck in the first innings, fired down a series of yorkers and leg-spinners that were too good for most of the batters. There was also useful back-up from Trishant Simlai (2/24) and Daniel Mortlock (2/13) and Dheeraj Halali (0/16 on Remnants debut), although the real support was in the field. Yash and Trishant were superbly energetic in the outfield, John Young made some superb stops square of the wicket both sides; and both Tom and Seb held (admittedly straightforward) catches. But the more eagle-eyed of you might have noticed the bowling figures only account for only seven of the nine wickets to fall, and the real excitement was not one, but two direct-hit run outs: first Hugh Myers at fine leg made a superb pick-up and throw that was flat, fast and right on middle-stump (although James, keeping wicket, almost tried to intercept the ball with his glove before pulling out); and then, in the final celebratory over of the game, James couldn't quite hold onto an edge, after which Daniel scampered around from first slip to execute a dramatic turn-and-throw manoeuvre with the batters mid-pitch. This brought AVEVA's retired batter back on 42* with three balls to get to his half-century, and he did go for the six he needed off the final ball only to miss Kaleem's final big leg-spinner by at least a foot.
In the end a pretty comfortable win and a nice lead-in to tomorrow's internal game.