Peppard (A) – 19.9.10

Peppard 198-6
Zia 2-23

RUASCC 199-6
Eagle 59, Ward 28

RUASCC won by 4 wickets

On a cool and cloudy day in Peppard a strong RUASCC side recorded another hugely satisfying win, successfully chasing down almost 200 in 35 overs in the dark after the home side had won the toss and batted first.

It was a victory that had looked unlikely after Main and Withers shared the first 14 overs and Peppard were 80-0. While it’s true to say there were a few streaky shots, it is also true that the opening batsmen, Legg and Vines, were in complete control - yes, they played and missed, but far more often they played and hit. It started to look like the breakthrough would never come, but these days RUASCC have the ideal man to turn to: Zia came on to bowl Legg with a tasty off-break.

At the other end Jagesh replaced Main and, despite an expensive first over, he found his line and soon the batsmen struggled to get the ball away. A handful of consecutive tight overs paid off when Vines looked to launch Jagesh over long-off and only succeeded in finding Bruce Main who took the catch easily. 102-2.

Peppard’s number three, Asquith, a man of considerable presence, played Zia with caution as the spinner racked up a spell of seven consecutive maidens, which included one wicket when Asquith’s partner was trapped bang in front. The next man, a young left-hander, didn’t last long as he launched a Baker delivery high in the air and much too close to Bruce Main. And Bruce Main never drops them.

At the other end Asquith was lucky to survive when a powerful drive was dropped by Bruce Main. With the RUASCC players scratching their heads trying to work out what had just happened, it was pointed out that Main must have deliberately put it down because the bowler, Baker, had earlier dropped a chance off him. However this logic couldn’t explain why Dip dropped one off Zia and Chan refused to hold onto one at slip having done the difficult part diving to his left.

As the Peppard innings drew to a stuttering conclusion Main and Withers returned to take a wicket each and thus at least partly justify their selection, but in the final over Main came in for some hammer from a 14-year-old with a long-handled Mongoose. As well as hitting a massive six and a four the young batsman was also dropped twice by a generous Jagesh who immediately phoned everyone to tell them about it. At the end of the over Peppard closed on 198-6 from 45 overs - a strong recovery from RUASCC’s change bowlers.

Peppard, who earlier in the season were awarded with the “Most Improved Tea 2010” accolade, consolidated their superb work by bringing out the pizza and sausages at about 4.15pm. A fantastic effort highly approved of by the visiting judges.

The RUASCC innings began with the controversial displacement of Withers from the score box (Peppard had their own scorer), a troubling experience for Withers who spent the next few hours signalling randomly at strangers and etching numbers into the pavilion wall. On the pitch, Ward and Eagle perhaps drew inspiration from the Peppard opening pair and set about building an attacking fifty-plus partnership of their own – Eagle confidently lofted Tim Vines over the six slip fielders while Ward hit some exquisite drives into the offside of all places.

The run rate was boosted considerably by a large number of byes, effectively acting as a third batsman, and once Vines finished his bowling spell he took over the gloves in an attempt to stop the flow behind the stumps. This move achieved only limited success, however the bowling change worked wonders as Ward was bowled by Vernon for 28. 72-1.

Dip began comfortably enough but before too long he chipped a catch straight to Roy Hayden at square leg, then Baker joined Eagle and the pair added more useful runs meaning the required rate never rose too high. It was all going swimmingly for Eagle (despite Peppard’s use of two third men to cut off his favourite shot) and he drove another boundary through the covers to bring up both his fourth fifty and pass the milestone of 500 runs for the season.

When Eagle had reached 59 he was given out LBW (“possibly outside the line and I put a bloody big stride in”) and soon Baker went the same way, equally if not more dubious about the decision. Zia hammered his first ball for a straight four and he had moved quickly to 13 when he was bowled trying to hit to the leg side and it seemed that some of the good work was being undone. With five wickets down and 50 runs short of victory the first murmurs of “doing a RUASCC” began to surface, while Jagesh took some time out from phoning everyone in order to send someone a text.

Chan arrived at the wicket and set his stall out immediately with a confident pull shot at a short ball from the young spinner. Unfortunately the ball didn’t cooperate and bowled him for a duck, but everyone agreed it was a pleasingly positive and aggressive duck.

Fortunately, with Ken Stewart absent, the RUASCC batting order had strength in depth and a seventh wicket partnership of skipper Carpenter and Bruce Main is certainly a very capable one. In increasing darkness Main, who enjoys thrashing young boys through the covers, brought back memories of his innings in Portsmouth with some firmly struck boundaries and there was more to celebrate as Extras reached their first fifty of the season with yet another bye. Carpenter kept a cool head to hit the winning boundary at the end of the 35th over and suddenly it all seemed surprisingly easy.

RUASCC Highlight: The batting gave plenty to choose from – classy straight drives from Ward and Zia, plus Eagle’s numerous controlled edges.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Andrew Eagle - a pleasing return to form.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle, Dip (wkt), Baker, Zia, Malde, Carpenter (capt), Main, Tranter, Jagesh, Withers