Saturday May 2nd 2009

I won the toss, and decided we'd bat first against an Indian attack noted for early pace, and cunning spin later.

Sadly, the early pace bit threw Christopher, who was given out LBW before he'd had time to get his eye in. 4-1.

Mincat and I seemed set and confident - until she ran me out: 25-2.

Mincat and Carol attacked the bowling successfully - until, that is, Carol was bowled: 53-3.

ILTV was also bowled: 87-4.

As their spin bowling didn't look that threatening, I decided to promote Ad up the order, to see if the time he's put in the nets had worked - it certainly had, as he scored a brisk 27 before being given out LBW: 121-5.

After a good, steady innings, building up 43 runs, Mincat was run out: 144-6.

Ivy was bowled: 153-7.

As was Rob: 161-8.

And Richard: 161-9. Those spinners were harder to read than it had appeared.

Vicus was dropped off the second ball he faced, and bowled by the next: 161-10.
Tea was gratefully taken, the lumps of ice in the incompletely-thawed pork pies helping to cool the blood.

We took to the field with a smaller target to defend than last week, but still something that seemed achievable, although heads started to drop after their opening batsmen attacked our pace bowlers from the start. Fortunately we are not a one-dimensional side* and some tight spin bowling from Phil slowed the run-rate, and took the first wicket too: 17-1.

After 15 overs they had reached 38-1, well behind the run-rate, but with enough wickets in hand to afford to be flamboyant. They did indeed start to strike out - but balls flying in the air also meant catching chances. Our pre-match fielding practice paid dividends - and in particular our lady members, embarrassed about last week's dropped chances, did well, each of them holding a catch.

ILTV was first, holding a difficult chance off Christopher's final over: 58-2.

Annoyingly, Vicus dropped a catch off my bowling. We did appreciate that it cannot be easy for a centenarian to react with the pace of youth.

Mincat, who was having a great match (apart from the little matter of having run her skipper out) took a one-handed catch off Rob's bowling: 79-3.

Carol held onto a ball that I'd bowled: 82-4.

As did Ivy: 87-5.

We got through our 30 overs with the score on 90-5, and so we won again.
As the table shows, we are now second in the league, with a match in hand over the leaders.
*We are a two-dimensional side. Literally.