There were many unexpected twists and turns during the first game of the season for Roehampton 3s, played in a tranquil corner of the BESC grounds in glorious sunshine. We lost the toss and Ewell chose to bat first. Fahad cautioned us that the Ewell outfit were likely to be strong, playing in Division 2 East and with a good record behind them, but we had first-game-of-the-season impetus, and, as well as returning players from last season, a new cohort of fresh young players, some from St James CC.

This impetus was certainly evident early on and Roehampton were undeniably dominant. Rubel and Raghib enjoyed a successful opening spell, returning overall figures of 3-30 and 1-21 respectively for the match, and this was supported by some excellent fielding too, Ali notably taking two catches. Fahad also impressed with the ball, taking a blinding caught and bowled with his first delivery, and proceeding to take another wicket with his third, ending with match figures of 2-4. Young Surrey U11 player Kaeden bowled accurately and him, Sameer, and Ali were rewarded with one wicket apiece. Having reduced Ewell to 25-8 in the 11th over, it looked like the game would be finished significantly ahead of time. Fahad mixed up the bowling attack, runs were proving very hard to come by for the opposition, and it looked like the final two wickets would materialise fairly quickly. Remarkably though, the top 8 having compiled only 20 runs between them, the ninth and tenth wicket partnerships managed to add over 100 runs to the Ewell total as the batters found their fluency and shots were now reaching the boundary with ease. Ewell even managed to avoid being bowled out and batted for the full 35 overs, finishing on 136-9. This display was not dissimilar to England’s recent 9th and 10th wicket partnerships in the 3rd test against the West Indies in which over 100 runs were added after the 8th wicket had fallen, with Leach at number 10 and Mahmood at number 11 scoring the majority of England’s runs, breaking test records as they went (although not to ultimately win the game in their case…).

Despite the admirable turnaround from Ewell, a target of 137 in 35 overs seemed very achievable. Roehampton had a much calmer start and, although losing a couple of wickets 10 overs in, the scoreboard was ticking over nicely and we reached 93-3 by the 18th over with Surinder hitting 45 (at a remarkable strike rate of 187.5) with Rubel and Nic contributing 23 and 19 respectively. The valuable wicket of Fahad, caught lbw facing his second delivery, was something of a turning point, and, despite the positive efforts of Neil Patel, once we had reached the 120 mark, wickets began to tumble. Once Neil had departed from the crease at 121-5, Roehampton capitulated and the ‘worm’, kindly provided by the scorecard software, provides a good illustration of what followed, the dots indicating wickets:

The final few runs we needed proved elusive in the flurry of wickets, including a panicky run-out, and Roehampton, with plenty of overs to spare, were bowled out for 130, just 7 short of the target, and therefore losing by 6 runs.

Curiously, it was game of opposites: Ewell collapsing at the start and relying heavily on their tail; Roehampton looking calm and productive early on, only to come unstuck later. Better that though than a one-sided game, and every player contributed, in excellent spirit, and the season seems to hold much promise for the Roehampton 3s of 2022.