BCCC 243
Regals CC 207 Won by 36 runs
BCCC- 243 for 6 in 35 overs . Regals CC (RCC) 207 all out in 31 overs !!! BCCC won by 36 runs !!
Weather - a typical English day !! Warm and sunny for most of the match, bar some heavy rain towards the middle of the 2nd half.
Back to winning ways for BCCC. A great game of cricket with over 400 runs scored in 65 overs! Thoroughly enjoyed by both sides especially as this was a new fixture organised by Parag and we were lucky to play against a throughly nice bunch of chaps ably led by their Captain Sanjiv. We are already looking forward to the return fixture away at the end of September.
RCC lost the toss so for a change BCCC batted first. Keith and Nik opened for us and decided running was hard work especially as it was so hot so hit a few boundaries apiece without moving around much. Nik was first to fall for 12, bowled by their opening bowler Dharam with the score at 22. In walked the Captain Sanjay swinging his bat around and praying he could get past the dreaded 20 run mark. He hit a few crisp boundaries off their opening bowler to start off with. Keith on the other end unfortunately lost his wicket for 8 again to Dharam who ended up with figures of 7-0-45-2. In walked Graeme at no-4 to resume from where he left off last year. Sanjay and Graeme put on 95 runs for the 3rd wicket before Sanjay was out stumped for 73 off the bowling of their off spinner Ashok. At this stage the score was 125 off 20 overs.
Graeme and Anthony continued to put on another partnership of 64 before Graeme was out. He ended up with a very valuable knock off the bowling of RCC first change bowler Piyush who got him out LBW for 61 valuable runs. Piyush was their best bowler on the day as he bowled with guile and accuracy. Unfortunately his figures of 7-0-42-2 do not do his bowling any justice as quite a few runs were scored by the inside edges of the batsman's bat. Phil joined Anthony and scored a quick 19 off 12 balls. Anthony was out next for his 2nd consistent knock of 30. The two Andrews - P and H came together for a quick fire 25 runs out of which Andrew H got 16 not out. Andrew P held the fort open at the the other end and ended up not out on 7, always a forward thinker so no doubt had his batting averages in mind !! BCCC finished on 243 in 35 overs. A very good batting effort by their batsmen.
Tea was taken with Claudia surpassing herself once again by providing a very decent spread of sandwiches, home baked Madeira cake and pastry filled with her favourite sweet potatoes !! Both sides left the pavilion happy with the opposition keen to get on with it and show us their batting skills.
And boy they did! RCC opener Mohak (red Indian descent no doubt) took a liking to most of our bowlers and started smashing them all over the park, and reached his 50 in about 20 balls or so. BCCC Captain was coming up with all sorts of excuses for dropping him at 1st slip when Mohak was on 10 in the 2nd over off the bowling of Andrew. Unfortunately none of the other BCC players were having any of it!!! Luckily for BCCC wickets continued to fall at the other end and BCCC's bowlers led by Anthony carried on taking wickets. Mohak continued enjoying himself until he fell to a very good catch taken by Anthony at cow corner off the bowling of Keith with the score at 135 for 5. Mohak scored a brilliant 106 to keep RCC in the game with 18 overs still to go. Unfortunately besides a very quick and brutal not out 52 by Madan, none of the other bats got past double figures. Nik cleaned up the last 4 wickets in only 3.3 overs and gave away only 11 runs, ably supported by Keith who ended up with 7-0-43-3 himself.
Howard - 3-0-12-1 . Jonnie - 3-29-0. Sanjay -2-0-15-0 . Graeme - 6-0-40-1.
Keith - 7-0-43-3. Anthony - 3-0-23-1. Andrew H- 3-0-19-0 and Nik - 3.3-0-11-4.
RCC 207 all out and lost by 36 runs with still 5 overs to go !!
Man of the match - Anthony again for his hard earned 30 runs, 1 wicket and hanging on to 3 hard catches just like any Aussie pro would at cow corner/long on.
Catch/s of the match - Anthony for his 3.
Shot/s of the match - I quite fancied Sanjay's nearly straight 6 over long on pirouetting down the track, balanced like a true ballet dancer on one leg after picking a slower ball for a change !!!