RUASCC 218-4 dec.
J. Singh 66 not
out, Saad 51 not out, Zia 39
Crazies Hill 137 all out
Yasir 2-13, Saad
2-19, Green 2-20
RUASCC won by 81 runs
A third consecutive
RUASCC win and we owe it all to the persistence and sheer bloody-mindedness of
our captain Andy Eagle. Not for anything
he did on the pitch, obviously, but for the fact we had a game at all. Another midweek cancellation led to another
48-hour dash to find some opposition and somehow hold a team together under
wildly fluctuating circumstances. At
various stages we were heading to Middlesex on Saturday, Newbury on Sunday, to the
moon at midnight – and eventually we all ended up here somewhere near Wargrave
and we’re all very glad we did.
As the name
suggests the ground is on a hill with mental health issues and you get some
lovely views of other, presumably less insane, hills and trees and fields and
horses and things like that. The
pavilion is essentially a large partitioned shed with no furniture save for an
old sofa in the corner of the changing room, but what a perfect place to play
cricket! And only ten minutes from my
house!
Eagle won the toss
and decided to have first dig, sensing his usual reticence to bat seemed to be
far outweighed by the insecurities of the home side. In truth the team he’d cobbled together
looked on paper to be more than up to the job and so it proved over the next
two and half hours.
Eagle himself set
the tone with an uncommonly attacking innings of 24 including five boundaries
(not all backward of point) while Murphy deposited the new ball over the hedge
at square leg never to be seen again.
Next up Jas Singh and Zia added 67 in nine overs and Jas reached yet
another RUASCC fifty. After a couple of
quick wickets he was joined by Saad and the pair rapidly added 74 before both
opted to retire to give someone else a go.
A couple of overs later Eagle called time on the innings, with four
RUASCC batsmen unbeaten. 218-4.
Having begun the
match as a sub fielder for the understrength hosts Andy Ashman was soon
appointed to play for them, and following what must have been a rigorous assessment
of their new recruit they didn’t call on him to bowl but instead asked The Good
Doctor to bat at number four. It wasn’t
long before Ashman headed to the crease as Withers quickly picked up the first
two wickets, including his 250th for the club and another textbook
in-swinger to bowl a left-hander through the gate.
There followed a
couple of overs of high drama as the entirely stoppable force of Withers met
the fairly moveable wall of Dr Ashman, but the batsman survived and even
flicked a boundary down to fine leg to trigger the first change of
bowling. It was left to newcomer Rich
Green, playing only his second game for RUASCC, to break through Ashman’s
resistance and put an end to a promising innings of seven.
The Crazies middle
order recovered well with the highlight being a young left-hander, batting with
his dad, who wanted to hit everything over mid-wicket and frequently managed
it. He was bowled by Waqar straight
after the drinks break but with the overs running out to take all nine wickets
Eagle started to worry that the win might be slipping away. So he called on Saad.
Word of Saad’s pace
clearly hadn’t reached this part of Berkshire and it was to the astonishment of
the four slip fielders (edging back as far as they felt able to get away with) that
the lower order batsmen shunned the use of helmets. To be fair they didn’t really need them – the
greatest risk would have been from flying bails. Two wickets saw us almost over the line
before debutant Yasir finished the job thanks to a diving one-handed catch by
Daman Singh at short extra cover. The
unfortunate young batsman was just two deliveries away from winning a £20
wager, but there’s no room for sentiment or mercy as the RUASCC juggernaut
thunders on.
RUASCC Highlight:
Daman’s one-handed catch to win the game.
RUASCC Man of the Match: Saad.
4 on the posh side, one on leg side, zero through third man - unusual for me I admit!
ReplyDeleteThe glasses of beer waiting as we left the field was a nice touch. We shall definitely return next season.