It was bright and sunny with intermittent clouds and a westerly breeze. Continuing the run of good luck with the coin, Ev won the toss and decided that the pitch was worth batting on first and strode out to open with Grover. After twelve overs they had managed thirteen runs, with Grover outscoring Ev who had possibly gone back to sleep. The scorers had.
Grover was caught trying to push the score along, after which it became Ben's duty to keep Ev awake. Together they got the score to fifty before Ev was bowled after his resilient and judicious occupancy of the crease / tedious blocking (delete as preferred). Tooley came in and matched Ben for stylish strokeplay, both of them the epitome of fine batsmanship, sending the ball racing to the boundary across an unpredictable and unforgiving outfield. On his way to fifty, one of Tooley's mighty blows took the fielder over the line at long-off for six and when he was caught for 55 with the score on 131-3 he'd upped the run rate and helped the Cowboys to a healthy position.
On his debut for the Saturday 1st XI, Asad scored a highly useful run-a-ball 20 with his resolute partner Ben and when bowled, with the score on 156-4, was replaced by second debutant Ollie. With the overs running out and orders to extract as much as possible from them, Ollie was unfortunate to be caught early on but avoided the ignominy that befell his successor Lalith, who perished for a duck. The collapse continued when Ben's was the fourth wicket to fall for five runs, bowled for a vital 39. Garnier and the Landlord eked out a few more runs from what was left of the 40 overs to get the total to 176-7.
Tea was served in a room accessed through the toilets that made toilets in a French campsite look classy. Everyone tried hard not to drop their doughnuts and indiscriminate baps on the floor on the hasty way back out.
Defending their total on a pitch that exhibited the potential for turn and bounce, Ev selected RT1 and Lalith to open the bowling, the former perfoming with customary guile and accuracy, the latter immediately having both batsmen in trouble and in no position to score. Bowling one opener for a duck, Lalith bowled out his very economical spell as Garnier replaced RT1 from the other end.
Looking very deft behind the stumps, Ollie pulled off a remarkable wide catch off Garnier's bowling that would later be chosen as the Cider Moment and the excellence continued when Lalith set up and bowled the new batsman with a flicked carrom ball in his final over, ending with 2-13. The Landlord replaced Lalith but didn't match his economy and the partnership grew, with SteveO unable to stem the relative flurry of runs at the other end. The Landlord's yorker finally did for the opening bat, who fell short of his fifty with Oldfield Park on 108-4.
Asad bowled a fine, brisk debut spell, limiting any chance the opposition had of catching up with and maintaining the required run rate, which was creeping over a run a ball. Wickets could have arrived sooner, due to the usual one or two spilled catches but also a batsman and umpire's inability to feel, see, hear or smell an edge that everyone else had. C'est la vie. They departed in the end, thanks largely to Asad's Man of the Match winning 3-17 and a textbook (cricket) boundary catch by RT1 after a textbook (cookery) spilled one by the Landlord.
Ev bowled an over to show that he was awake now, thought twice, mumbled something about maths and gave the ball to RT1 for a second spell. The opposition didn't appear to have the clout or will to chase the target and one of their own was heard to shout, "the object of the game is to win." No such lack of intent from the Cowboys, who put the pythonesque (snake) squeeze on Oldfield Park to a Pythonesque (Monty) soundtrack from a neighbourhood ice cream van. RT1 picked up a late return catch to ensure that the fire was out and after 40 overs the innings petered out on 140-8.
Scorecard
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