27/7/24
Venue - Holy Cross
Team - 3rd XI - captain - Farhan Malik.
Weather 25c fair weather cloud, light breeze.
The strip used was the most easterly one as in the image below with a very small boundary on one side.
I had no idea of how weak or strong they were, but it was apparent there was one really strong player "Ross" who apparently played for B&PCC some 15 years ago. It seemed this bloke was the one that might potentially take the game away from us.
Farhan won the toss and opted to bat and looking around the team I could see there was some decent bats in our team... Harry, Mike, Charlie, Hassan and Farhan himself.
A couple of hours later, making some use of the short boundary we walked off having set them a total of 320 off of the 40 overs with a few wickets in hand. I didn't get to bat at No.11. Hassan and Harry both batted well with Hassan in particular hitting massive sixes. The 2 kids at the start did well as did the off-spinner. See score sheet for the breakdown.
Then came the bowling. I wasn't sure whether I'd get to bowl as there was another wrist-spinner "Zadran" - a young bloke who was with Hassan. Our openers Chris Prince and Vignesh Manjunath bowled well with most of the runs being made with late cuts through 3rd man where I was fielding - the first 4 bounced off a lump and nearly took my teeth out, so was put further back. That cut off the 4's but enabled a series of singles. Most of their top order made the majority of their runs through a region between forward of point and an almost straight fine 3rd man. They tried to capitalise when the bowling was from the Church end (Vignesh) and to some extent did so despite three players at deep point, deep 3rd man and fine 3rd man. The main man "Ross" had the shots for this area, as did one of the openers G McDonald.
The first 7 players were dealt with by Chris and Vignesh. Vignesh getting the raw deal bowling from the church end and two of the key batters having the shots to exploit the small boundary. Chris ended on 8-2-29-4 and Vignesh 7-2-43-3.
Then Farhan brought on the spinner Zadran. He came in off a longish run-up and bowled fast. I was fielding at Gully at this point with a bad back and feeling less than agile - somehow I'd twinged it running (Old age I guess)? At Gully I couldn't see what he was doing, but Charlie (Keeper) and Mike (Slips) could see and they were very impressed. Zadran was "Turning it big" said Charlie, Mike said his Wrong-un turned a little bit, but it was the bounce that he was getting that they were impressed by, they also said that he had a top-spinner as well. Bowling so fast in comparison to me the trajectory which I could see looked flat and I asked about whether the ball dipped and it wasn't apparent to them or me. They also said there was no drift. He bowled his first three overs from the church end and what with mixing it up he had Charlie all over the place... "Best wrist-spinner, I've ever seen". Said Charlie and Mike concurred.
We had a break at the usual 20 overs and I was able to get some Ibuprophen down my neck. Farhan had asked what end I wanted to bowl from and I said the Church end and he'd offered to get me in prior to drinks, but Zadran was bowling from that end. Over the break he swapped the ends around using Harry Suther and I came on for the 22nd over.
The main man "Ross" was still there and going well Farhan had said 'Whoever can get him, I'll pay your match fees'. Zadran, despite his fast Toppies, Leg-breaks and Wrong-uns had gone for 3-0-15-0 at this point. I changed the field (see diagram) leaving a big gap to tempt the cover-drive and his late cut looking to potentially get a catch.
As with most, this bloke would hopefully think 'Just another workaday run of the mill wannabe leggie, I'll have a look and then destroy him'. The other batter was a kid as I recall and I bowled a Flipper so "Ross" could see that it wasn't turning. The kid played the late cut and slavering at the prospect of facing me Ross called him through. I then bowled a series of stock ball Leg-Breaks which he kind of played with some caution and then the last ball he needed to hit to get on strike to face Zadran and protect the kid. The last ball was the Flipper, on the stumps, he rocked back, went to cut it through the off-side and heard his stumps rattled as the ball skidded through low. He fell short of a 50 by 5 runs.
The other blokes, I don't remember to be honest, but again the one that got the wicket was the Flipper and then Zadran finished the game off. My wickets were appreciated by the rest of the blokes that I usually play with.
Zadran (Wrist-spinner) 5-0-20-1
Me (Wrist-spinner) 2-0-7-2
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