A Perfect Triangle
27/06/2021
The triangle in this week’s title refers, of course, to three sides and three angles, appropriate because the weekend involved three teams but also three matches. This might be the PWCC blog, but as the OCLTC’s lovechild I feel we ought to acknowledge the aged parent when the occasion presents itself from time to time.
On this particular one, Saturday’s declaration game against an amalgam of the two league teams to be faced the next day had a secondary purpose. Were we to win (which we did, by six wickets) it would allow, in the event that we did not do so well on Sunday, all the old farts, traditionalists and curmudgeons (i.e. most of us) to look witheringly down our noses and intone that ‘at least we won the proper cricket’. But we won the improper cricket as well, so it didn’t matter.
Saturday’s victory came courtesy of a solid set of performances all round, with wickets spread between bowlers (including both Neil and Ollie Charles finishing with 2-16) and authoratitive batting begun by long-form specialist Sanath, and John Z, neither of whom would feature on Sunday. It was all played in a great spirit and suggested tight games the next day.
Perhaps not as tight as what came in the first league game, though: tighter than a … well, you can apply your own metaphor here. I followed the PWCC innings on the Crickheroes app so didn’t see Anthony continue his fine batting form with 64 not out or Mubeen’s presumably rather entertaining cameo for 27 near the end. A score of 145/5 seemed decent. With Anthony obviously in such good nick a good, tight effort in the field seemed a given. I arrived at the club just about in time for the start of Coinbra Knights’ chase. Then I saw Anthony. The man was a bit of a mess, his pallor something of the shade of Casper the Hungover Ghost. His bowling rather matched, however it would be unfair to cast blame entirely on Ants as there were a few who seemed a little off par and the Knights steadily built, anchored by the excellent Miguel Stoneman (43*), climbing steadily towards the total. The second highest scorer for Knights was Extras (23). Hmm. Into the final over and it looked to have gone their way. We needed something and so up stepped Sir Neil on his charger (that perhaps does not quite capture his run-up), to produce a lesson in tight death-bowling that strangled the Knight’s leaving them on run short of victory. Huzzah!
After lunch it was Miranda Dragons to take the stage. We started positively before Anthony (who ended unbeaten again, this time with 39) and Premal slowed things down teasingly to give the opposition some encouragement before embarking on a mad scoring blitz. It helped that Premal got injured so couldn’t run and chose to stand still and hit sixes. Why he hadn’t thought of that before, I don’t know. He finished with 44 as we set a target of 175/4. The Dragons were always going to struggle to reach the total, despite some aggressive batting, but Neil, this time in his role as Knight-sympathetique, was rather more generous at the end in helping them get as close as 154/5 in reply. Before then, Abhishek had had a hattrick ball, with the other wickets scooped by Raghu (2) and Junaid. The watching Knights, basking in the post-lunch glow of the terrace/wine, enjoyed the flourishes of Tony Madeira (43*) and captain Girish (54*) at the end, even though it was clearly in vain.
So there we are: four out of four and clear at the top of the table, with a great weekend that was social and competetive, strong contributions from the whole squad. And we won the proper cricket.
Big thanks as ever to Ian for his umpiring (Sabha wasn’t thanking him against Dragons, but sorry, mate, I still say that he got it right!), and to Matt for scoring both of Sunday’s games. On to the return fixtures this Sunday.