The Ministry of Justice have often been one of our weaker opponents in the past. This year's encounter proved rather different, however, and Dodgers were well beaten by a better team on the day. With several members of our squad struggling to make it by the scheduled 6pm start time, the oppo agreed that we should bat first. The wicket was green and the boundaries square of the wicket were very deep, with the result that none of our top order managed to make inroads into what was at times fairly erratic bowling. Worse still, the MOJ held every catch they were offered, and we lost wickets at regular intervals. Only Dave H, batting at 8, scored with any fluency, and we ended our innings on 100 all out - a nice round score in itself but not much of a total to defend.
Dodgers bowled well, but the MOJ openers found the straight boundaries with greater regularity than we had, and within 11 overs had already notched up 70 runs. The scoring rate slowed towards the end, but this was largely because the match was already won. We were granted one champagne moment when a looping full toss from Charlie hit the low-ducking MOJ batsman on the helmet in front of his stumps, but was adjudged to be just off target. Dodgers were convincingly beaten as a result of not getting enough runs on the board - but on the plus side, everybody in the team got a bat!
Man of the Match votes: Dave 7, Matt 3, Mike Mc 1
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