Englefield (A) – 2.5.11

RUASCC 226-9
Malde 62, Zia 45

Englefield 227-2
Carpenter 1-16, Zia 1-27

RUASCC lost by 8 wickets

RUASCC headed to the picture-perfect setting of Englefield Cricket Club for their second game of the weekend with seven of the same players who earned the draw against Blewbury the day before. It was a bright, sunny day and from inside the car everything looked wonderful – until you got out into the open and a force-eight gale took your breath away. We felt for poor pensioner Ken Stewart who is especially susceptible to draughts.

Thanks to some endearingly eccentric timekeeping from Withers, a handful of players arrived at the ground only just in time to see Eagle and Carpenter striding out to the middle to open the batting. Forty seconds later and we would have missed Eagle striding back again having been bowled by the second ball of the match.

From this inauspicious start some quick runs followed. Baker, making his first appearance of 2011, got off the mark with a boundary and both he and Carpenter tucked into anything short or wide. The fifty partnership came up in the ninth over and the pair were coasting when Carpenter chipped up to mid-on from a fairly weak delivery and was caught for 23.

Zia, bearing the bruises from his innings the day before, set off in his usual fashion but before long he lost his partner as Baker, on 43, cut straight to cover when looking set for a big score. RUASCC were 92-3 after 16 overs and another fine partnership followed with Zia and Malde at the crease. Englefield rotated their bowlers with several young kids getting involved so Chan did the only decent thing and dispatched them over the mid-wicket fence at regular intervals. But with two batsmen looking set and averaging ten runs per over, another wicket was given away: Zia this time directed a thick edge straight to gully on 45.

Greenhalf came in at number six on the back of a golden duck at Blewbury and he instantly banished the memory of that failure by doing exactly the same thing again. He was cleaned up first ball by Deacon who was then denied his hatrick by Adam Seymour edging two runs through the slips. Seymour went on to play an important part in a 55-run stand during which Chan reached a fifty including two sixes and seven fours. Eventually Seymour was bowled for 11 and his wicket prompted a collapse that saw RUASCC go from 196-5 to 213-9. Chan edged behind for 62 attempting the Dilscoop, Jagesh went lbw attempting something equally extravagant and Dr Ashman was bowled for 0 going for a big shot that was definitely there to be hit.

This brought together the rather desperate pairing of Pensioner Ken Stewart and specialist nightwatchman Keith Withers with three overs remaining. Predictably nothing much happened for a while but Withers clubbed two fours in the final over to drag the total up to 226-9 at tea.

Englefield need 227 runs to win

Fans of the cricket world cup will remember the quarter final when England posted 229 against Sri Lanka and thought they might have just done enough - then lost by ten wickets. Well, RUASCC lost this one by eight but it was equally convincing. The home side reached 105-0 after the first 20 overs then even after Zia did get a slightly dubious lbw decision the next pair added 65 largely due to opening batsman Samad who raced to a ton.

Carpenter brought himself on and took a wicket with his first ball – Eagle taking a good low catch at short mid-wicket – but by then Englefield only needed 37 to win with plenty of overs to spare. By the end Samad was seeing the ball like a hot air balloon, thumping it to every part of the boundary off every bowler, and finished unbeaten on 130. When only six runs were needed, Malde came on to bowl and four balls later it was all over.

So after three games that’s one win, one draw and one defeat for RUASCC in 2011, and despite the results this was an enjoyable weekend of cricket. Not a bad effort from a group of players who are barely fit enough to play one game a week, let alone two.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Split between Johnny Baker and Chan Malde – both batted and fielded well, Baker with the gloves and Chan at cover point.

RUASCC Team: Eagle, Carpenter (capt), Baker (wkt), Zia, Chan, Greenhalf, Seymour, Stewart, Jagesh, Ashman, Withers

RUASCC Worrying Bowling Stat: In two matches RUASCC bowled 74.4 overs and took only six wickets (including one run out) for 448 runs. That gives an “economy” rate of exactly a run a ball and hence both a bowling average and a strike rate of 74.67.