RUASCC 180-8 (all out)
Rafiq 51, Eagle 49, Abid 33
Dorchester 161-9
Rafiq 5-19, Abid 2-12, Zia 1-14
Match Drawn
Those of us who made the trip to
Dorchester can count ourselves lucky we got a game in at all - the recent
improvement in the weather allowed us this bonus cricket weekend but it took
the full weight of Zia’s address book merely to scrape together nine
players. Nevertheless we were determined
to enjoy ourselves and it was undoubtedly this end-of-season feeling that prompted
Eagle to choose to BAT FIRST, then go on to play with the sort of freedom that
saw him race to 40 not out in 31 overs.
Opening partner Abid hit eight
fours in his 33 but then disaster struck as Ward (LBW) and Zia (C&B) were
dismissed from consecutive deliveries prompting Withers and Ashman to start
getting padded up. Fortunately we still
had some middle order strength in the shape of Rafiq who joined Eagle at 69-4
and posted a valuable half century in a stand of 88.
While it’s often true that our
beloved captain bats like a giraffe in a man costume it cannot be denied that
he held the RUASCC innings together here.
When Eagle was eventually bowled for 49 the innings petered out and we
sacrificed 15 minutes of batting time to the home side, meaning we ended up
having to bowl 46 overs while limited to eight per bowler with only nine
players. This meant everyone had to put
in a spell except the wicketkeeper, the skipper and Dilip whose injured shoulder
meant he was unable to turn his arm over.
Withers bowled as usual without
much incident, taking his only wicket with his penultimate ball. Jaffri generated plenty of turn and was
unlucky to finish up wicketless, while Abid was rapid enough to give Ward a
torrid time behind the stumps but he too was unable to break through in his
first four. All of which meant that
Dorchester reached drinks needing only 101 runs in 20 overs with eight wickets
in hand.
Once again in our time of crisis
we turned to Rafiq and he picked up a couple of quick wickets including the
opener who appeared to be their biggest threat.
And he wasn’t finished there: a change of ends brought two wickets in
two balls and suddenly the likelihood of defeat had given way to the
possibility of victory.
Abid picked up a couple and Zia
returned to get rid of Sharman (40) who was starting to make a good fight of
the run chase. By then Rafiq had picked
up his fifth wicket and, much to the delight of Dr Ashman, we headed into the
last few overs with all four results still on the table.
It soon became apparent that
Dorchester’s last pair were only in it to protect their stumps, so with the sun
slowly disappearing behind the treeline and all nine of us surrounding the bat,
Ashman and Zia had an over each in which to attempt to dislodge them. Then tension mounted but the old guys stood
firm to save the draw.
A thoroughly compelling end to
the season, just a shame there weren’t more of us there to appreciate it.
RUASCC Highlight: Eagle
winning the toss and batting first.
RUASCC Man of the Match:
Rafiq, despite dropping two catches.
RUASCC
Team: Eagle
(capt), Abid, Ward (wkt), Zia, Jaffri, Rafiq, Dilip, Withers, Ashman
