Farley Hill (A) – 17.6.12

Farley Hill 118 all out
Withers 3-14, Carpenter 2-8

RUASCC 119-6
Zia 33 not out, Dersh 18

RUASCC won by 4 wickets

Allow me to begin by apologising for the unacceptable delay in posting this match report. In my defence it’s taken me six weeks to get over the shock of RUASCC winning a cricket match.

Eagle made three good calls early on: he won the toss, he put the home side into bat and he gave the new ball to brothers Zia and Waqar who repaid his faith by conceding 46 runs in ten overs before Zia eventually stopped bowling his slower balls and removed Jalil for 17. Waqar removed the other opener in the very next over at which point Eagle took pity on the batting team and threw the ball to Withers.

But Withers, possibly affronted by being relegated to first change, unleashed the beast within and took a wicket in each of his first two overs (one bowled, one LBW). From 46-0 Farley Hill were now 58-4 and Withers, unplayable in this sort of form had 2-2.

Jagesh came on to replace Waqar and he too picked up a wicket, then Carpenter got in on the act, starting with two maidens before finding an edge to Dip and an LBW to leave Farley Hill 91-7. Jagesh grabbed his second of the day (another clean bowled) to finish with 2-22 before making way for Tranter who quickly settled into his line and length peppering the square leg umpire and any low-flying pigeons. But, as Eagle correctly predicted, the third legitimate ball of the over rapped the pads in front of middle stump and the ninth wicket went down.

A snarling Withers was brought back on to finish the job and he only needed two balls before Harvey slashed at a wide one and was brilliantly caught by Jagesh diving to his right at fly slip. 118 all out, and it was a decent performance from the well-honed, disciplined, athletic fielding unit.

The RUASCC response lacked fluency, and although the required run rate never became an issue the regular clatter of wickets was a worrying sight at times. Ward was first to go, mis-timing a drive to mid-on for 9, before Eagle was bowled for 15. Dersh and Carpenter added 29 but were both dismissed by Harvey to leave RUASCC 80-4 with sixteen overs remaining.

Zia and Dip put together the most important partnership, although a brutal drive from Zia nearly put an end to Umpire Sewell as the ball ricocheted off the stumps at the non-strikers end and hit the startled Professor squarely in the shoulder. Sewell was escorted from the pitch and encouraged to rest while Eagle went inside to fetch a cup of tea but, unable to find a teabag, Eagle instead returned with a Twix. At first Sewell was visibly unsettled by the shiny wrapper but, once inside, he was pleased with the parallel nature of the high-energy snack bars and wolfed them down, making a mental note to add them to his next Ocado shopping order.

Meanwhile on the pitch RUASCC passed 100 and so needed only 19 to win with ten overs remaining. Easy, you might think, but Dip was too eager to get the job done and got himself out with the score on 116. He was followed first ball by Turley but just when we were starting to wonder if we could pull off a most inexplicable collapse the winning run was given to us with a no ball.

Zia finished unbeaten on 33; Sewell finished slightly beaten but soon regained use of his legs.

RUASCC Highlight: Jagesh’s flying catch at fly slip.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Prof Sewell

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle (capt), Dersh, Carpenter, Zia, Dip (wkt), Turley, Waqar, Tranter, Jagesh, Withers