Another good win against a reasonable side. Just as well, because standing out in the sun for five hours and losing ain't fun.
Not sure what happened with the toss, but we batted first on a sixth-hand deck. Quentin's form deserted him, while Rich - despite not being keen on opening the batting - played his usual aggressive innings while Mike held up the other end, just failing to see off the oppo's quickish opener. Rich barely reached his 50, Quentin calling him for one short when he was on 49. Tim was happy enough to let me do most of the batting before he played one on. Martin and Anurag both failed to recapture the form of recent weeks. Croc and I steadied the ship a little, struggling to score runs at times against frustratingly tidy bowling. Croc played one on as they brought their opening bowlers back, then Bumby did his usual "hit out or get out". I managed to entice a great catch from the quickie, and Stanton got run out trying to get Jules a score. All out for 173.
Martin and I were half right when we said that the guys who had bowled would be the guys who would bat. Half right because they put in some guys who didn't bowl and couldn't bat. Mike and Bumby dismissed one each early on, then copped a bit of stick from the somewhat agricultural numbers 3 and 4. Croc replaced Mike when Martin finally realised that straight and fuller would be more effective than short and widish. It was. Wickets fell consistently thereafter. Bumby bowled 10 overs straight, despite the heat, hoping to get a 5-for. He was pipped by Croc, who took 3 wickets in 4 balls to end the innings (as well as reduce his average from 104 to just over 20!). 68 run win followed by excellent numbers both at the KA and House of Spice.
AO