Early June drizzle greeted the Dodgers as we assembled at the Turney Road ground in Dulwich for our annual fixture against the perennially powerful Tilberg Regents. Dodgers took the field first, and were soon shown just how strong a team we were facing as the Tilberg openers raced to 43 off their first three overs. Abhi and Satya bowled with persistence, however, with Abhi taking three excellent wickets - all clean bowled - and Satya claiming another via Captain Ralph's smart catch behind the stumps. Charlie and Krishnal took over as first change and bowled tidily, but the oppo made good use of the short boundaries and kept the scoreboard ticking over rather more briskly than we would have liked. Aamir and Will continued to make inroads into the Tilberg batting, with Aamir claiming a second wicket when the ball flicked his little finger and he ran out the non-receiver at the bowler's end. Yet this only brought their talented opener back to the crease, where he proceeded to cause havoc once more. The Regents' eventual total of 187 looked ominously unobtainable, even in the evening sunshine.
Charlie and Will opened our account with the bat, the latter falling early to one that clipped the top of leg, the former proceeding nicely until caught in the covers for 14. Mike notched up four crisp boundaries before also being caught, while Simon fell in like manner - indeed, Tilberg fielded well throughout our innings. Satya and Krishnal now took over and built an excellent partnership, with Krishnal lofting two magnificent sixes over the ropes before retiring unbeaten. Brendan, Abhi, Ralph and Aamir were unable to stave off the inevitable, however, and Chairman John failed to manoeuvre the returning Krishnal back on strike before being bowled himself. We were well and truly beaten, but (on the positive side) we did finish within 100 runs of their total.
Man of the Match votes: Krishnal 9, Abhishek 2
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