Match played at Histon recreational ground.
Phoenix won the toss and decided to bat.
Phoenix won by 22 runs.
What a beautiful sight presented itself to us on our arrival; A warm late-May evening without cloud cover, a recreation ground that could have been a bowls green, kids having a water fight outside our changing rooms – all perfect for a cricket match against a new opposition.
Unusually I won the toss and elected to bat (which was a good start).
Dave had an evening stroll, a lovely walk out to the middle and then an amble back again two balls later. Nusrat, scoring, was untroubled.
Jeff and Aidan then tried to set about the bowling which was quite zippy and accurate and instead had to look for rotating the strike with quick singles.
Mr Extras, our 12th man, started to score quite heavily though, especially when the change bowlers came on.
Damon and I found ourselves together after Jeff and Aidan retired in quick succession and scored a few each. Nick and Bruce also got a swing near the end.
Adrian revealed a forward defensive of which Sir Geoffrey of Boycott would have been proud. He also got to run a three (with me) and then, perhaps related, was out next ball.
So all in all we reached a total of 136. Would that be enough? Would we remember it was fifteen eights rather than twenty sixes?
Mr Creed opened up with swing bowling and got his reward with an lbw decision from his “straight one”.
Jeff, after an expensive first over, tightened it up and snagged a deserved caught and bowled. His last and our penultimate over went for just two runs!
Nusrat has the ball on a bit of string when he bowls. Skilful. Inexpensive. So we all enjoyed his full toss that was slapped straight to Jeff at mid on.
Adrian bowled really well getting bounce and zip and generally making life difficult for their batsman.
Matt, our designated finisher did just that with no pressure on him, since the opposition were way behind the run rate. He took a wicket and sportingly let their batsman hit his last ball for 6 over third man.
All in all a lovely evening and good beer in the red lion. Ah, pub conversations….
“Matt was clocked at 62mph on the speed gun and Jeff is very similar pace”. Someone then pointed out that this was only true for the first couple of balls an over.
Phoenix
Garman (w) b Ball 0
Wilson Retired not out 25
Swain Retired not out 27
Rainsford b Robin 14
Everson (c) not out 16
Foster b Ball 6
Cairnduff lbw Ball 0
Robinson not out 4
Extras (b 14, lb 6, w 21) 41
Total 136 – 4
Napp
Indy Retired not out 25
Smith lbw Creed 2
Newman Retired not out 26
Lees c Wilson B Hamid 10
Welden b Dobson 9
Venkat C & b Wilson 4
Ball not out 23
Nigel not out 6
Extras 10
Total 114 – 4
Phoenix Bowling
Creed 3 – 0 – 20 – 1
Wilson 3 – 0 – 22 – 1
Hamid 3 – 0 – 16 – 1
Foster 3 – 0 – 20 – 0
Dobson 3 – 0 – 36 – 1