A World of Churt

Saturday saw the 2nd XI make the journey down the A3 to the nice ground at Churt. A breakdown on the A3 had us running late, and Churt were good enough to start the match at 1.15pm after winning the toss and asking us to bat.

In the field, Churt weren't slow to remind us of our long journey, or our apparent keenness to get back to Roehampton in time for the Champions League final as some early wickets fell during some testing new ball bowling. At 32-3 Churt were deservedly on top, but RCC regrouped, initially through a good partnership between Sacha Hattteea and Babar Mahmood , and then through a series of small but important partnerships among Rich Else, Josh Bloom, Zak Khan, Shahid Mehmood and Paul Fuchs. Babar top scored with an entertaining 48, Sacha made 44, and RCC closed on 172 all out.

RCC opened the Churt innings with Zak and Fuchsy using the old ball, a move that paid dividends as the score was 17-1 after 8 overs. An expensive first over with the new ball more than doubled Churt's score, and took a lot of momentum away from RCC. Some big leg side shots from the Churt no. 3 continued to put pressure on RCC and the game felt like it was slipping away. However, Shahid and Babar as first change bowlers dragged RCC back into the game with some accurate bowling, picking up regular wickets. Just as it began to feel as though RCC was getting on top, a 7th wicket partnership threatened to change the game again. Fortunately Babar was able to achieve a direct hit run out to expose the tail, and RCC were able to pick up the wickets needed for a third win in a row.

Thanks to Churt for a good game of cricket (80 overs, 300 runs and 20 wickets!) played in good spirit.

Man of the match: Babar Mahmood, 48 runs, 3 wickets and a run out.