LUCAN 3: 263 for 8 off 40 overs

Batting: Honey 58 Annu 49 Vosikula 30 Mohan 21 Chiraj 15

Bowling: Chiraj 8-21-4 Siddharth 5.5-16-2 Mohan 5-13-2 Shalitha 5-12-1 Anuj 6-21-1

HALVERSTOWN 2: 120 All out off 39.5 overs

Batting: B.Elshove 44 Ajesh 16 D.Drumm 10* S.Hayes 7 J.Hodgson 6 

 Bowling: D.Drumm 6-31-3 L.Joseph 8-33-3 Ajesh 8-0-50-2 K.Hodson 6-30-0

A.Barber 7-42-0 J.Hodgson 4-33-0 B.Elshove 2-17-0 

There was real worry from one of our players that, if we fielded first, the “great bowling firepower” we had would “blow them away” in no time and we wouldn’t get much chance to bat. As it was I lost the toss and they chose to bat, but I was not as sanguine about our prospects since hearing that Lucan had tried to enter a 4th team in the league very late on, indicating a surfeit of talent. They certainly had talent in abundance and as I said, if they were at real 19th Division level I was the Queen of Sheba. They were far too strong for our, based on last year’s experiences in the T20 Cup, pretty powerful team at this level. Despite a big outfield they found plenty of boundaries in a massive innings of 263 and then put us to the sword with a fine bowling display. 

It was 14 overs in before Ajesh took our 1st wicket and his first for the club. He bowled well, taking a second later. It was 25 overs before I took our 2nd wicket, a good catch from Andrew Williamson dismissing opener Annu for 49. Wickets were a struggle with their first 5 batsman putting in excellent performances – and the next 5 were pretty good too! Though sloppy in the field early on we tightened up with Lijo Joseph taking two fine catches at long on from my bowling. Barry Elshove took an astounding catch from Lijo as well as one from Ajesh with Stuart Hayes doing well for another from Lijo- who took a bowled wicket, along with Ajesh. We managed to take 8 wickets, but at a cost. Our other bowlers did well too against a powerful batting line up and Andy Barber’s death bowling was particularly worthy of note.

Batting was difficult against an extraordinary line up of accurate – and fast- bowling. Only Deepak failed to take a wicket and he had 2 maidens in his 3 overs! In the 2nd over we lost Lijo and Andrew and thereafter we were fighting a lost cause. Barry scored a brilliant 44, holding things together for a long time. We aimed for a bonus point but were finally going to settle for not being all out. Ajesh (33 balls), Andy Barber(14 balls) and me (31 balls) at 8, 9 and 10 nearly held out to frustrate them but Cecil at 11was caught on the penultimate ball from the excellent Siddarth. A chastening experience but we stuck to our task and will have learned from it. 

 Written by Des Drumm.