Report by Daniel Mortlock:
Our matches against GEANT have gradually evolved away from those against other sides, perhaps even to the point of speciation as a sort family-oriented cricket-themed picnic. It would have been almost unthinkable for most of Remnants history to have a game with: no toss, GEANT offering to let us bat first lest they fail to set a decent target; 10 overs in succession from each end; an over of clear "chucks" from a non-cricketer in navy athleisure gear; retirements at 40; no rebowling of wides and no balls; batters arbitrarily retiring themselves; twelve players on both sides, with fielders rotating on and off; a fridge full of beer, cider and soft drinks; half the batting side's players vanishing mid-innings to feast on freshly-delivered pizza. None of this is a complaint - everyeone loves pizza! - but it's definitely a different experience.
We certainly fulfilled our part of the cricketing bargain by setting a decent target, scoring freely from the first ball - imperiously driven to the cover boundary by Seb Hammersley. Seb and his opening partner James Robinson started the day as the third and second highest runs scorers for Remnants this season, both just behind Yash Verma (260 runs at 130.00); given such good form, it might have seemed strange that James seemed completely out of touch today until you realise that it was the absence of Yash at the other end that was the problem: batting with Yash he's averaged 56.50; but in games without him James has averaged just 29.60. So it should have been no surprised that James scratched about for 6 (off 13 balls) at which point his innings was mercifully ended - but that was still enough for him to go top with 261 runs at 37.29. James's reign seemed likely to be brief as at this point Seb was on 258 at 51.60, only to nick off to a delighted TK for 32 (off 24 balls), thus bringing his season's average down to a mere 43.10.
Pete Ames had not quite reached such heights this year, coming into today's game with 21 runs at 5.25. So his surprise at being asked to come in at first drop (a position traditionally occupied by greats such as Bradman, Richards, Lara and Ponting) was not altogether unreasonable. Not that this justifies his increasingly desperate attempts to improvise a method for keeping his box in place, the failure of which may explain why during his innings of 26 (off 31 balls) there were 33 awkwardly shuffled singles and only 7 twos, despite the widely spread arrangement of fielders with, er, moderate throwing skills.
We'd organised our middle order such that fathers and sons - Doels and then Sahais - could bat together . . . which they did not, as in both cases the sons only got in following the demise of their fathers (the sort of tragedy that Christopher Nolan could presumably spend the GDP of a small country adapting into a dimly-lit three-hour epic with a muffled soundtrack that, overall, mimics the experience of being taken to the cinema in a hession sack). Stephen Doel had started well, earning the admiration of the GEANT supporters by virtue of not wearing a helmet, before enduring the indignity of being dismissed by one of their non-cricketers for 17 (off 14 balls). That brought son Matthew to the crease, who immediately showed how to deal with the lack of pace from the bowlers: smash the ball as hard as possible. This he did with great success, hitting some of the hardest shots we've seen on his way to 41* retired (off just 19 balls). Sumit Sahai then played nicely for 12 off 12 balls, before reluctantly (after being given out LBW, something which he only realised having completed what he believed to be a leg bye) making way for son Rohan (5* off 3 balls). That our innings ended with what would, but for a wide, have been a double-wicket maiden was an irrelevance: our total of 175/6 was surely enough.
Or was it? GEANT's strong top order definitely had the best of it for the first half of the second innings, racing to 81/1 after 9 (six-ball) overs. Our one wicket had come when Iqtedar Alam (1/18) bowled Cam Petrie (poached by TK as we had so many reserves). This was Iqtedar's 17th wicket of the season, nicely extending his lead on the season's table, two ahead of Daniel Mortlock who, despite bowling well in an economical spell of 0/16 today, remains stuck on 15 wickets for the season.
We then arrived at the key moment of the match when Sumit Sahai (1/8) had the surviving opener well caught by James on the boundary. The chase was still very much on and GEANT had several good batters to come; but they also had a number of people who'd come for a day out and were presumably in danger of doing nothing more than fielding in the heat for an hour. The GEANT captain opted to prioritise people over the win, and so even while TK smashed his way to 41* off 24 balls we were able to dry up the other end, GEANT's number four batter using up a fatal 18 balls for just 2 runs. Rohan Sahai (1/20), John Moore (0/17) and Sasha Vail (2/24) all played their part in this period, although the most important contribution was from 'keeper Seb Hammersley's helmet: when he saw the batter moving across to the off-side to pull one of John's moon balls behind square he raced over to a leg-slip position . . . which is exactly where the batter had aimed, the ball cracking off the bat and then immediately dinging into the grill of Seb's helmet. It felt like a sickening impact; but the helmet had done its job perfectly and Seb seemed absolutely fine - and, more importantly, had saved four runs, meaning our final victory margin was a healthy 27 runs rather than a sickly 23.
While the sun was now setting it was still warm, meaning members of both clubs were able to enjoy GEANT's drink provisions and continue the hunt for one more slice of pizza.