The Dodgers descended on Turney Road, Dulwich, for this season's encounter with the perennially powerful Green Sox, in what turned out to be a closely fought and exciting contest. Captain Ralph lost the toss and we were put into the field.
Abhi (entered in the oppo's scorebook under his new surname Papaya) opened the bowling with Charlie, the latter taking our first wicket - and the middle stump out of the ground - with the third ball of his spell. Thereafter the Green Sox batsmen dug in and made good use of the short leg-side boundary, until Satya and Will came on as first change and bagged a wicket each. Gary contributed the champagne moment of our fielding effort with a Stokes-like direct-hit run out before coming on to bowl himself. Savan and Niket then took up the cudgels as our final pairing until Abhi took a wicket in the last over to finish with the exemplary figures of 4-1-7-1. The Green Sox total of 144 looked impressive but not impossible on such a fast outfield, especially given the depth of our batting line-up.
Satya and Charlie opened our account with the bat and were soon scoring strongly against the accurate Green Sox bowling. Charlie was caught hitting skywards (see video footage below) and Niket, replacing him, was unfortunate to be stumped off the first of two very competent leg spinners, while Satya would eventually retire unbeaten after a succession of boundaries, including a towering six over mid-wicket (also caught on video, below). Tamal, guesting for us from Putney, hit two brilliant fours before being dismissed in the deep by an unbelievable running catch, Aamir became the second of our batters to be stumped off some tricky Green Sox bowling, while Will progressed to a neat 27 not out. Abhi came in to score two sixes off his first two balls, 24 off his first nine balls and a further six from his tenth, retiring unbeaten on a spectacular 30* which swung the game right back in our favour. Ralph, Savan, Gary and John found it difficult to score in more than ones and twos due to the still accurate Green Sox bowling, and all but Gary perished while trying to hurry the score along. This opened the way for our retirees to return, however, and our hopes of a swift victory were raised further when Satya cracked a glorious six over the leg-side boundary. Even when he was well caught off the next ball, we still had confidence - but Abhi was also caught before being able to get going again, which left just Will and Gary to bag us the six runs needed to win. With the light fading, we managed three further runs before Will was bowled in the last over. We finished two runs short of our target, but it had been a very enjoyable contest and the game was the winner.
Man of the Match votes: Abhi 10, Will 1
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