On a pleasant Sunday afternoon, Dodgers made our annual July pilgrimage to the lovely surroundings of Great Windsor Park. Captain Ralph lost the toss and Dodgers were duly inserted. Helpfully this is the option that would have been made given the choice so suited us.
Mike and NJ took to the middle with the former soon returning having been pinned in front by opposition skipper Harry bowling with his usual left arm in-swing. This brought Diago to the crease, and he and NJ formed a solid partnership going along at a decent rate. Diago was the first of the pair to depart getting a full strait one which rattled the timbers. This brought in guest no 1 via NJ, Chanmeet, who audaciously tried to loft the same bowler back over his head first ball, only to be caught at deep mid-off.
This brought in Kunal to face the first of six potential hat-trick balls during the course of the afternoon, none of which proved to be successful. Kunal set about playing with his usual flair and control, looking entirely untroubled in his compilation of a fine century. NJ departed for 41 having been unlucky to chip one back to the bowler on a sticky pitch. His second guest Jas came in and played some controlled shots prior to also being out LBW to Harry for a well compiled 23. Satya in uncustomary style didn’t hang around for long as was out caught trying to accelerate the scoring as we had wickets in hand. Both Dilly and Idress failed to trouble the scorers playing in the same vein and Kunal was finally out for an even 100 attempting a quick 2 as the innings was coming to a close. This left skipper Ralph and Paul to see out the last few balls and thanks to an excellent all round effort we set GWP a stiff chase of double Nelson to win.
After the usual excellent tea including a first of ice lollies being provided, GWP set about their chase with 222 looking to be a considerable target. Idress and Diago opened at each end, both bowling with good pace and no little skill. Idrees was unfortunate not to bag a wicket with Diego bagging 2 of his own including one of GWP’s openers who was scoring at a decent rate.
Chanmeet and Jas came on as first and second change respectively and both bowled with great guile, bringing down the run rate and taking 3 wickets apiece as the innings progressed. Resistance as usual was provided by GWP skipper Harry who kept them in the game with a fine 53, however he fell victim to NJ and an excellent steeping catch on the boundary by Chanmeet who made it look far simpler than it was. Following his heroics with the bat, Kunal then bagged the final wicket granting Dodgers a comfortable victory and providing a nice tonic to last year’s heavy defeat.
We also pay thanks to players for both GWP and Dodgers, Milind, who in his absence from the game kindly set up a generous tab for both sides. This allowed us to retire to the club’s excellent York Club bar to watch the finish of the England India one-dayer, before making our way home to watch a less thrilling game of football between Spain and the Cheats.
MoTM Votes: Kunal (10), Chanmeet (1)
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