Match Report
Following on from a comfortable win away to Wandsworth in the previous game, the league team arrived at the DSG in high spirits. The weather had changed from the last week, with overcast conditions and a soft outfield replacing the glorious sunshine of the week before. Despite this, the wicket on The Hollies was fairly dry, having been covered since around 9am on Wednesday with Jake & John fearing the wrath of Tisato following the “cover gate” shambles of the London Gymkhana game a few weeks earlier. So, a quick cut and a roll from assistant groundsman, Max Gumpert and we were ready to go. Which made one team…
Bec Old Boys were struggling for numbers and ended up being docked 6 overs from their innings due to only having 7 players at the 12:45 cut off. It meant the toss was forfeited and Tisato took the opportunity to put the oppo in. The delay also played to our favour with Logan in an Uber trying to make it across London from Hackney having set off about 12:30… it wasn’t quite enough time to prevent us starting with 10, which, in hindsight, ended up proving to be more than enough.
Matt Bolshaw & Puff opened the bowling in favourable conditions and did so superbly. Bush in particular finding a lovely bit of shape into the top order batsmen, which proved to be too much for their opener who was bowled in the first over. A strong start and the team sensed an opportunity to make the most of the situation, but what followed next was one of the most abject displays of shot selection many of us had seen on a cricket pitch…
On a slow track, with the ball stopping in the pitch a bit, their number 2 batsman decided to drive through a length ball and succeeded only in lofting it straight into the safe hands of Max Gumpert at a floating mid off.
Then, on a slow track, with the ball stopping in the pitch a bit, their number 3 batsman decided to drive through a length ball and succeeded only in lofting it straight into the safe hands of Max Gumpert at a floating mid off.
Next, on a slow track, with the ball stopping in the pitch a bit, their number 5 batsman decided to drive through a length ball and succeeded only in lofting it straight into the safe hands of Max Gumpert at a floating mid off.
In over 13, on a slow track, with the ball stopping in the pitch a bit, their number 6 batsman decided to drive through a length ball and succeeded only in lofting it straight into the safe hands of Max Gumpert at a floating mid off.
This left them 5 down, all 5 to Matt Bolshaw, 4 of them caught at mid off by Max. Some more choice shot selection followed, most of which was greeted by gawps of disbelief by onlooking Ploughman, particularly after a number of batters tried to put their very first ball out of the DSG and into Zone 4.
Without their team seeming to learn the lessons of previous dismissals and despite a bit of resistance from their number 4, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals with Puff ending up with 2, Lonnen with 2 and Adeel with 1. These included 2 more batters lofting one down Max’s throat at long off as he ended up with 6!!! catches. Bec Old Boys bowled out for 90. A great bowling display all round and a special mention to Puff who’s opening spell deserved more than the 2 wickets he picked up.
Logan and Adeel opened up the batting in reply and with dark clouds looming decided to waste no time in trying to knock off the modest total. Logan’s statement of intent was clear when the first two balls were hit over mid wicket for 4 & 6 respectively which had the score predictor on the app suggesting we would end up with a total of over 1000, slightly more than the 90 run target… It was great to see Adeel and Logan finding a bit of form, playing some lovely shots all round the ground and a mere 13.2 overs, a few more boundaries and only one wicket later we knocked off the total. A convincing 9 wicket win.
The match finished at around 4:25pm, which must be some sort of league record for Logan who had only been at the ground for about only 2 hours and 15 minutes by the time we had won. Solid days work.
The win takes The Plough up to the top of the league heading into into the Tour break, setting us up for a good run to the end of the season.
Final shout out to Max, who I think moves onto the first page of the all time fielding records with the 6 catches, relegating his partner in crime on the day Matt Bolshaw down to page 2.
Until next time, Plough On.
