Dodgers celebrated the 235th anniversary of Bastille Day by descending upon the royal family's private domain for our annual encounter with Windsor Great Park CC. Despite almost incessant rain in previous days, the sun shone throughout the match on what is surely the most picturesque ground that we play on.
Dodgers batted first, the main item of news from our innings being the exceptional century by NJ, who carried his bat from first to last and offered only one chance along the way. His achievement was all the more praiseworthy in that the pitch was an unpredictable one, some balls rearing off a length while others kept dangerously low. Mike fell to a controversial LBW early on, but Diago notched up a healthy 30 before making way for Anujit and Tamiur, both on debut for Dodgers, the latter striking a succession of excellent boundaries prior to being bowled for 16. His departure brought Brendan to the crease for the most successful innings of his career so far, including two crisply struck fours. Once he had departed for 17, Dodgers batted all the way down to number 11 and finished with a handsome 217 for 9 off our 35 overs, over half the runs coming from the bat of NJ. This felt like a competitive total, if we could only make inroads into the Windsor batting.
After a pleasant tea on the pavilion terrace, Idrees and Gary opened with their customary pace and accuracy, Gary taking two early wickets to force Windsor onto the back foot, Idrees ending with commendable figures of 7-0-23-1. John and Tamiur came on as first change, the latter dismissing the perennially dangerous Windsor captain Harry for 32. NJ and Diago took up the cudgels and each bagged a brace of wickets, while Anujit kept wicket excellently throughout. Special mention goes to Aamir for sustaining a badly gashed finger in the cause of stopping a sure boundary, which sadly prevented him from coming on to bowl as he would otherwise have done. The game ended as Windsor were all out in their 29th over 50 runs adrift, and the early victory allowed football fans to race home in time for the Euros final. If only the England manager had shown the same tactical awareness as Captain Ralph...
Man of the Match votes: NJ 10, Brendan 1
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