Thank God for the IPL

On Saturday morning a Roehampton 2nd XI (including a last minute 11th player, thank you Babar) made their way out to Wallington with the hopes of carrying on from a winning opening weekend. Spirits were high having seen that the opposition lost by an eye-watering 331 runs the week before. However the weather quickly dampened those high spirits. Having won the toss and elected to field the 22 players spent the next few hours watching both the rain and the IPL.

After a couple of hours with the rain settled at a steady drizzle, the two captains decided that it was either now or never. So with calculations made (32 overs per side), (multiple - ed.) jumpers applied, sawdust laid and bath towels ready for ball drying, eleven Roehampton fielders took to the field. An inauspicious start when the opening over from Will suggested that perhaps the decision to try and play in these conditions wasn't the wisest, however he quickly found his groove and at the other end Shaheed picked up from where he left off the previous week. An early outside edge from their opener was remarkably snaffled by Jono at 1st slip (he was as surprised as everyone else that he held on to it) and from there a steady flow of wickets fell. More good catching from Stu Allen behind the stumps, all of which were juggled to make tricky catches look even trickier, and a brace for Josh off Jono and Hemish left Wallington struggling at 58-7. A bit of a tail wag got them up to 111 all out, perhaps a few too many but overall a genuinely very impressive fielding and bowling performance from RCC with no chances going down and bowlers persevering excellently in trying conditions.

Stand out performance goes to Shahid Mehmood for excellent figures of 7-2-14-6, taking his tally for the first 2 games to 11-4-18-10.

After a fairly quick tea and with the weather worsening, Hemish and Mods strode out to bat. However after just 4.3 overs the rain finally won, leaving us 11 for no wicket and no result declared. After checking that the opposition skipper would put the result on play-cricket so that Hemish's 5 not out would count to his season average, we departed back to the club house to share the excitement of having the opportunity to pay for our drinks via contactless payment.

Thanks must go to the Wallington team and skipper for trying to get a game in despite the conditions.

Josh Wilmott