2s Pick Up 5th Win On the Bounce

Words: Stu Allen

Saturday saw the RCC 2s, on a four game winning streak, head down to Godalming. Stand-in skipper Stuart Allen won the toss (a pleasant change) and chose to bowl on a good looking deck that had survived the Friday downpours. Shahid Mehmood opened the bowling, and had the dangerous opening batsman caught behind early on. He followed this up by bowling the number 3 then the other opening batsman to leave Godalming struggling at 12-3. Babar Mahmood bowled a tight opening spell from the other end, and was unlucky not to contribute early wickets also. As Godalming fought back with a good partnership, RCC kept the run rate down with some excellent ground fielding (Josh Bloom in particular was a magnet for the ball), and some tight bowling from change bowlers Fahad Hasan and Dan Wrenn. Wrenn put a difficult chance down off his own bowling, although his mum thought he should have caught it! (Is this our new secret weapon, mums watching? Big fan of this - Ed.) , and skipper Allen had seen enough. Jack Butchers replaced Wrenn, and he managed to pick up three wickets with some steady medium pace after bowling some off break pies for a couple of overs early on.

RCC's tight fielding created two run outs, and as the pressure increased on Godalming Babar came back to close the innings - he bowled the dangerous Nigel Churaman with a lovely seaming delivery that was the ball of the day. Godalming finished 125 all out, with Shahid and Jack picking up three wickets each, and Babar two, with two run outs.

After a nice tea, Sacha Hatteea OBE and Marc Moderegger set about chasing 126 to win. Mods got a bit too excited and scored 5 from the first over (the shock was audible from the middle - Ed.) - he soon managed to get his run rate back under control, and after Hatteea OBE was out for a well paced 50, Dan Wrenn set about scoring more runs in 5 overs than Mods had managed in the previous 25 overs. Mods finished 34* and Dan 33* as RCC wrapped up a 9 wicket win, and a fifth victory on the trot.

Man of the match - Shahid Mehmood for three early wickets that allowed RCC to get on top early.
SAK - thanks for coming!