Tilehurst & Theale (A) – 22.5.11

Tilehurst & Theale 219-4 dec
Main 2-57, Zia 2-72

RUASCC 223-2
Zia 90 not out, Ward 69 not out

RUASCC won by 8 wickets.

For the third consecutive match RUASCC turned up with only ten players and were again fortunate to be offered the services of a young boy. (I feel I could have phrased that better but time is pressing.) Eagle stood in as skipper and probably would have fielded had he won the toss, but he lost the toss and we ended up fielding anyway so that’s all right then.

I won’t dwell too long on the T&T innings even though it felt at the time like it would never end. Using their full 44 overs the home side reached 219-4 at tea including a partnership of 152 for the third wicket. Zia bowled 19 overs, Main bowled 13 overs; each took two wickets, but there was so much time in between when all the fielders seemed to do was chase the ball to the boundary.

A force eight gale blew relentlessly around the ground and on a cricket field there’s nowhere to hide. The bails flew off repeatedly, batsmen frequently had to chase after their hats and bowlers who wanted to hit the stumps realised they had to aim for the square leg umpire - it left many of us wondering whether wind has ever stopped play.

RUASCC did well to restrict the runs in the last ten overs, during which time Main trapped Ali LBW for 72 and Zia enticed Wigmore (109) down the pitch just enough for Dip to complete the stumping. The two new batsmen couldn’t get going and the innings rather petered out.

RUASCC need 220 runs to win in 41 overs.

First over. Eagle. Maiden.

Keeping his place as opener, Carpenter’s first ball was a leg side full toss and it disappeared for four as the albino Sehwag set off like a train. He found the boundary three times and had scored 18 out of a total of 22 when he tried to pull a ball that didn’t get up and was clean bowled. Shortly afterwards Eagle worked a textbook four over gully but then an equally textbook edge to second slip ended his day on five.

This brought Ward and Zia together at 32-2 in the ninth over. Most would agree that there was still a bit of work to do at this point, and considering RUASCC’s collapse the previous day it seemed wise for numbers five, six, seven, eight and nine to get padded up just in case - but over after over passed and no wickets fell. Some produced only one or two singles (and several leg byes) but the majority went for a run a ball or more and the two batsmen settled in for the long haul.

Ward, who had only batted twice this season scoring a total of 15 runs, thumped a massive six into the hedge at mid-wicket and the score passed 100 in just the 18th over. Zia, already in decent form going into the match, carried on where he left off against Greys, using his feet well to drive and pulling anything worth pulling for four. Having reached his first fifty of the season Zia was lucky to escape when he was dropped not once, not twice, but three times when he offered chances that any RUASCC fielder would easily have also dropped.

Ward nudged plenty of leg side singles and then brought up his own fifty by calmly sweeping a full toss down to the fine leg boundary. By the 30th over fewer than fifty runs were needed and this time RUASCC weren’t about to ruin it. A wide from Osborn brought up the 200 in another over costing ten runs and it was fitting that each batsman hit one more boundary in the 39th over when a full toss was thumped over mid-wicket by Zia to finish the match. The pair had added 191 runs in 30 overs while Dip, Tom Weeks and Bruce Main sat padded up, sheltering from the wind as best they could, unable to believe what they were seeing. A quite remarkable performance and a resounding win by eight wickets with two overs to spare.

RUASCC Highlight: The sensational unbroken 191 stand for the third wicket – the highest I’ve seen in my time with the club.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Scoring 69 not out will usually win you this award, but not when your teammate scores 90 not out having already bowled 19 economical overs. Nice try Wardy, but it’s Zia again.

Zia’s Weekend Stats: 122 unbeaten runs in two innings with figures of 7-111 from 32 overs. And a catch. Zia’s batting average so far this season is 111.5.

RUASCC Team: Eagle (capt), Carpenter, Ward, Zia, Dip (wkt), Weeks, Main, Blake, Stewart, Ashman, Withers