With daylight hours drawing in at the sunset of our season, Putney hosted Dodgers for another fixture of The (Village) Hundred. And in the spirit of the shorter format on the night, I'll try to keep this report shorter as well.
Mike and Komal opened the batting. The former was given out LBW on 17, leaving the crease in characteristic frustration, while the latter sublimely made his 25* with brief partnership cameos from Will (4 and stumped, a sweet boundary before skipping down) and Jatinder (3 and bowled, a welcome return in his first fixture of the season). Brendan was run out on 0 by Sayer's accurate direct hit but gave way to Fin who put together something special with Abhi. Although our big-swinging bowler fell on 11, Fin hung around until the end, joined by Matt (4 and bowled, crunching his first delivery to the leg side rope), Aamir (1 and LBW, unable to replicate his Supes heroics), and John (0 and unlucky to be run out without facing a ball). Fin's 17* featured a monster six in the final over, our only maximum of the innings, and brought us to the hopefully defendable total of 105. That said, Komal was still the only Dodgers bat to outscore our faithful friend E Xtras, who finished on an impressive 20.
Putney were well contained by openers Abhi and Will, ticking along at the required rate until Abhi expertly found the edge of Mawby's bat and Komal adjusted in an instant to take a professional catch behind. Proper cricket on display! Sayer batted well to retire at 25* but Putney's scoring slowed with Clinton and Jones in the middle; they found themselves only slightly ahead of the rate at the halfway point in the midst of solid spells from Stockers and Aamir and subsequently John and Fin. Abhi, upon being brought back into the attack, bowled an absolute jaffa to remove Jones and literally shattered off stump into pieces in the process. To our chagrin, this did bring Sid to the crease- we could only watch (as much as fading light would let us) as he proceeded to find the boundary early and often despite the best efforts of our bowlers. Fin was able to force him into catchable positions twice in an over, but after watching Will shatter his thumb attempting the first Brendan's subconscious survival instinct kicked in and the second bounced harmlessly for two. As Sid retired on 25* Putney were well and truly in the driver's seat, but Dodgers did bring the game to the final ten balls thanks to some sharp fielding (including a nice stop from Brendan in the covers to prevent them winning on a stylish boundary). They ultimately secured a much more underwhelming victory by leg bye, with Clinton finishing on 18*.
Abhi and Fin both batted and bowled smartly to earn two MotM votes apiece, but Komal deserves this week's prize for his commanding and chanceless 25*, without which there might not even have been 100 balls to face, let alone bowl, and his great work behind the stumps.
Man of the Match votes: Komal 6, Abhi 2, Fin 2
Abhi poses with his destructive handiwork
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