Failand Allsorts Vs Venturers, Sunday June 1st

Failand Allsorts 185/8 (40), Venturers 151/10 (32.2)

Play-Cricket Results

We lent them Mizan, and he opened the batting, alongside Sam. Long-serving Venturers players knew what to expect. Sam has history against us. He is a good player and was brought in to bolster a team we used to play against: the first time he did that he made a two-ball duck, and the second time he was not quite so successful. He followed that with a longer duck, and when he finally did make a score against us, he got swindled by Gregory on 97. So he bears a grudge, in a cheerful way.

His grudge was not improved when Mizan ran him out, but by that time they had added eighty. There was a lengthy discussion about how it had happened and whose fault it was, but most of all about who was out, since both batsmen had ended up at the same end. The umpire (Maurice) ruled in favour of Mizan, correctly we think. But by then the damage to us was done. Imran had been very accurate but Oliver had bowled three expensive overs, and Gregory had asked for what Imran had thought was the wrong end. Imran was right. Our ground fielding fell apart a bit, too, but the nearest thing to a chance had been a top edge that cleared Bruce by a long way.

Once the partnership was broken we improved a lot. Joji cleaned up the new batsman: the usually obstructive Kerry was castled by Dinesh, and Dan caught an edge off Bruce. But Mizan charged on. Eventually he was given out LBW for 87 by Maurice, who seemed to be losing patience with him: Joji, the bowler, thought it was a reasonable decision but a bit tight on not pitching outside leg (Mizan is a left-hander). Even after that there was a bit of resistance, but it was ended by one of Imran’s patent induckers, and we were bowling to ourselves again as we had lent them Jassim and Debangan. Gregory removed both of them in three balls, thanks to a good stumping by Dan in Debangan’s case and after that, nothing happened.

Nothing happened when we batted either. Jaideep was cautious and Charlie very cautious, but they laid a solid platform before Debangan bowled Charlie. Jaideep edged Sam’s flat offspin but his contribution, Joji’s and Siddhant’s had got us to almost 100 for 2 when Joji was trapped very much in front by Sam. Siddhant chipped a return catch, Ghulame nicked off and after that only a short burst of violence by Oliver gave us any encouragement. He and Dinesh fell in consecutive balls and we had only the draw to play for. But Imran, who may have been watching too much Bazball, hit three fours and then put one straight up in the air, leaving Bruce and Gregory to try to survive eight overs (or, still more improbably, score 31). Bruce popped Mizan’s second ball to cover.