Report: Rich Else

In life, not much is certain. In Roehampton Sunday Cricket however, several things are.

1. The game will not start on time
2. Over half of the team will be late
3. Rich will have a debilitating hangover (but will be wearing jazzy socks - Ed.)

Our opponents, Envirobuild, all arrived early and had an entourage of support staff with them including an umpire and what appeared to be a coach. Fahad started the mind games by hiding in the clubhouse until 12:40 making Envirobuild’s openers wait nervously in their pads. The mind games continued as we began the game with 9 men in the field keeping Sanket hiding in the bushes until the 3rd over when he came out and made it 10. Rattled, the opposition leant us a rotating selection of players to fill in and give us a full team. Amidst all of this the game was progressing nicely.

Dhilhan and Mo opened the bowling but couldn’t get the breakthrough we needed early on. The oppo were charging along at over 6 an over, with one batsman (the fella in the green hat) looking particularly strong. Changing things up, Fahad brought himself on and snaffled two wickets in two balls including the dangerous green hatted chap. At the other end, Fuchsy was keeping things tight whilst also chipping in with wickets, he finished up with 3-31. Rich was then brought on for 6 overs to give the batsmen some respite. Sanket’s 2-19 left the oppo 9 down and looking in a bit of trouble. However, batsman 11 came in and looked pretty handy. It was only during tea we found out that they’d picked their batting order out of the hat and batsman 11 was actually their first XI’s opening bat. Mind games.

With Envirobuild finishing their innings with 176, The Cavs were quietly confident. It would have been foolish to be loudly confident as we all know the batting collapse is a distinct possibility. Boagy and Ed went out to open and were looking strong guiding us to 40-0 early on. Ed (8) was the first out followed a couple of overs later by Boagy (27) but the foundations were set and the Cavs built several strong partnerships. Another confident knock from Broady who added 17 and Mo with 25 kept the runs ticking over nicely. Ejaz was stumped cheaply sending Fahad out to the middle with the game in the balance. The Cavs captain set about playing sensibly, hitting the bad ball(s) and defending the rest. Seeing partners, Broady, Mo, Rich and Sanket fall, Fahad was eventually joined by Dhilhan and the two set about securing the match. Fahad eventually ended up on 37 not out, the highest score of the match.

Man of the Match: Fahad for removing the danger man and then hitting 37

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