RCC 1s record winning draw against Long Ditton

The first drawn game of the season and pure frustration for RCC. On a very wet track and outfield, RCC were asked to bat first and after the loss of an early wicket, Scott Costello and Stick Mowatt showed application and patience as batting certainly wasn’t easy and every well struck shot just stopped short of the boundary on the wet outfield. After the loss of Stick, Phil Dorsett joined Scott at the crease and with some excellent running between the wickets (at one point I thought that Phil may need some O2) and some fantastic shot making, they put on nearly 100 runs. Phil in particular was harsh on anything short and had the Long Ditton fielders spending a lot of time in the bushes looking for the ball. Scott again demonstrated how to perfectly pace an innings and made an excellent 65 off 114 balls. When Phil lost his wicket in the most unfortunate circumstances (run out at the non-strikers end after Sam Stevens connected with a straight drive) for 62 off just 66 balls (with the wet outfield that was as good as 90 of 50 balls), it was left to Will Hunting and Andy Mcleod to play little cameos and get the RCC score up to 197 (on a dry track, that was certainly worth 240), when the skipper called them in, giving RCC 45 overs to bowl out Long Ditton.

Long Dittton started out strongly and as the outfield was drying, the balls were going to the boundary with more frequency than during our innings. However, Sam Stevens again showed why he is the best bowler in the club and at times was unplayable. He had the batsmen in all sorts of trouble and was very unlucky not to pick up 5. At 4 down and still 20 overs left, Long Ditton decided that enough was enough and shut up shop, much to our frustration and even the odd comment made to the batsman was not enough to push them to increase the scoring rate. Even when the skipper started bowling some donkey-drops, Long Ditton were not taking the bait. De Wet Kruger bowled with his usual hostility and was just too good for the batsman....they weren’t good enough to get anywhere near it although 1 batsman in particular will remember Krugs, after been hit 3 times in succession in his nether regions. At 6 down, Long Ditton were firmly shutting up shop so in a last attempt to ruin their day, with an over left, we decided to try and deny them getting 120 and a batting point. Only then did the Long Ditton skipper play an expansive cover drive for 4 to get them 120 (where was that aggression for the last 15 overs?).

RCC got the winning draw, but we can take consolation that we were by far the better team and totally outplayed Long Ditton.

Man of the match: Scott Costello
(report by Paul Fuchs)