Cavs edge out Winning Innings

After a Saturday of dire weather a change: the clouds broke, the heath started drying and the match was on. Winning Innings, short-listed for nicest cricket team the Cavs have played (2019), lost the toss and Captain Hasan leapt at the opportunity to bat.

Strapping on his pads and gritting his teeth Moderegger accompanied Boag to the wicket. A good thing too as Boag played some attacking shots and pushed the score along at quite a pace until RCC junior (and Winning Innings player for the day) Tom Dillon whipped a ball past Boagie’s ill-planned ‘leave’ to take the top of off stump.

There was something of a reunion theme at this match: Darcy Wright (touring Europe) returned to play (watched by ex-2nd XI captain Pete Dandy), followed later by Sanket Patel, who was playing his first Cavs’ match for about 5 years.

With Moderegger pacing his innings to get the most out of his reasonably priced annual subs other Cavaliers stepped up to keep the score ticking over. H Purnell was looking in form until he was caught by a Cavalier Turncoat; Fahad played himself in and then attacked before offering a simple catch; and then Hannan helped Moderegger take the Cavs to the end of the 35 overs. Moderegger - the rock upon which the Cavaliers built their innings - carried his bat having scored at 1.26 an over. Apparently he didn’t get much of the strike.

Like a ying to Moderegger’s yang, Winning Inning’s opening bat and captain, Neel, played some stunning attacking shots, taking the game to Abi Ramesh with some big 6s and really taking the match by the scruff of the neck. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, Neel’s batting partners didn’t quite have the same prowess and some good bowling and fielding by the Cavs meant the game didn’t get away from them.

After 25 overs the match was in the balance and then, using his bowlers wisely - with Shahid and Badger bowling tightly - Hasan properly ripped into the Winning Innings middle order and took the impetus out of the innings. Despite some keen running - including some ludicrous singles - Winning Inning’s lower order couldn’t get enough bat on ball the bring the game home.

Man of the match: Fahad Hasan for challenging his team to bat first on a damp pitch, for a fine contribution with the bat and more importantly, an even finer bowling spell that put the brakes on any Winning Innings comeback.