Stragglers of Asia vs The Flashmen at Culham Court, Aston, Henley
Result: The Flashmen won by five wickets
Match Report:
The traditional decision on winning the toss is to bat first. If it’s cloudy and the pitch is green, they say, you should think about it – then bat first. Hmm, not entirely convinced of that. And on Sunday morning, the early-season baking sun had become nothing but a distant memory in the persistent bouillabaisse of patchy sun, rain and wind, and the pitch sticky and green despite the covers. The Flashmen, having had past experience of turgid draws (and also probably with some perfectly reasonable concerns regarding the conditions and the prospects for play later in the day) requested a 40-over game. With a handful of players still en-route to the well-hidden entrance to Culham Court, the stand-in “captaincy committee”, knowing it would be an uphill task, felt they had little option but to take first use of the pitch.
Middleton and van der Byl started the way they meant to go on – bowling tight lines and getting movement through the air. Once the ball pitched, a combination of variable pace (between slow and very slow) and at times comic tennis-ball bounce made timing the shots even more difficult. Both opening batsmen started to become frustrated – too many successful connections between bat and ball were either mistimed or went straight to the prowling field. Phil McDuell finally succumbed to that frustration and was snapped up in J McGann’s first over, bringing son Jonny to the crease. The next few overs brought an increase in tempo, and the score accelerated from 23 at the fall of Pa McDuell’s wicket to 65 in the next eight overs.
Then disaster struck right on the halfway point in the innings, van der Byl spearing the ball in from 30 yards range to defeat Jonny’s last-minute lunge. A classic Straggler collapse then followed as batsman after batsman departed – guest Vaibhav Shintre beaten by another quick throw (Zac French having relinquished the gloves to Mills), then guest Sameer Athaley, Rob Baxter and Tony Hooper all being hustled out in no time. 65 for 1 in the 19th over had suddenly become 79 for 6 in the 23rd. Ian Perry and Alex Asher then dug in and saw the side almost to the lunch break before Alex was bamboozled by a late in-ducker from the evergreen Chandani and the players trooped off to a stunning lunch.
Dragging themelves reluctantly from the lunch table, the players resumed with the score on 92. New man Milind Adbol started brightly, but Perry at the other end was unable to add to his lunch score and drove at another Chandani offering only to lose his off-bail. Rob Pollock-Hill and tailender Tom Whyte swung lustily to show the earlier batsmen what might have been, but Chandani and Middleton were not to be denied and the innings closed with one ball of the allotted 40 overs un-bowled.
The inevitable drying of the pitch and a steady brightening of the sky made the conditions correspondingly easier for the batsmen, and the Flashmen were quick to take advantage against Whyte’s opening over. Adbol at the other end countered with a steadying maiden. Then Whyte struck, drawing Middleton to drill the ball directly to Athaley’s safe hands at mid-on. Not to be outdone, Adbol struck too, dispatching Xenakis for a golden duck. The Flashmen were reeling at 19-2 – could this be the chance?
With only 125 to defend, this was never going to be a war of attrition, Stragglers had to attack, but that meant taking chances with gaps in the field and unguarded boundaries. Whyte and Adbol however rose to the challenge and pegged the Flashmen back for another six miraculous overs. In his fifth, Whyte provoked a firmly struck drive from Bartholomew into Jonny McDuell’s hands, diving forward at short extra cover to take an excellent catch. 38-3 off 9.
Chandani and B McGann however had other ideas and started to push the game along. After taking 12 from Adbol’s final over, they punished anything loose – and indeed a lot that wasn’t at all loose. Striking the ball firmly in the arc, they were particularly severe on Shintre and peppered the straight boundary and the long grass beyond with fours and sixes to set the scoreboard spinning. Then, with the game all but gone, a golden moment when Adbol took two superb catches from consecutive balls to send back first Chandani and then McGann – the second catch right in front of his delighted father who had come all the way from India to visit his son’s family and was watching behind the rope at long-on.
Team batting first: Stragglers of Asia
| No. | Batsman
|
How out | Bowler | Score |
| 1 | Ph McDuell | St Z French | J McGann | 8 |
| 2 | I Perry | Bowled | Chandani | 34 |
| 3 | J McDuell | Run Out (van der Byl) | 19 | |
| 4 | V Shintre (g) | Run Out (Z French) | 0 | |
| 5 | S Athaley (g) | Ct B McGann | J McGann | 0 |
| 6 | R Baxter | Ct Middleton | J McGann | 0 |
| 7 | T Hooper | Ct Xenakis | J McGann | 4 |
| 8 | A Asher *+ | Bowled | Chandani | 7 |
| 9 | M Adbol | Not Out | 17 | |
| 10 | R Pollock-Hill | Ct Mills | Chandani | 6 |
| 11 | T Whyte | Bowled | Middleton | 9 |
| Extras | 21 | |||
| TOTAL | 125 for 10 Wickets |
Bowling
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets |
| Middleton | 7.5 | 2 | 21 | 1 |
| van der Byl | 8 | 1 | 19 | 0 |
| B McGann | 3 | 0 | 21 | 0 |
| J McGann | 8 | 1 | 24 | 4 |
| Xenakis | 3 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| Chandani | 8 | 4 | 13 | 3 |
| Z French | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
Team batting second: The Flashmen
| No | Batsman | How Out | Bowler | Score
|
| 1 | W Middleton | Ct Athaley | Whyte | 15 |
| 2 | R Bartholomew | Ct J McDuell | Whyte | 8 |
| 3 | M Xenakis | Bowled | Adbol | 0 |
| 4 | C Chandani | Ct Adbol | Pollock-Hill | 38 |
| 5 | B McGann | Ct Adbol | Shintre | 47 |
| 6 | J McGann | Not Out | 9 | |
| 7 | W van der Byl | Not Out | 6 | |
| 8 | A Mills +(2) | Did Not Bat | ||
| 9 | G French | Did Not Bat | ||
| 10 | Z French +(1) | Did Not Bat | ||
| 11 | R Baldwin * | Did Not Bat | ||
| Extras | 5 | |||
| TOTAL | 128 for 5 Wickets |
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets |
| Whyte | 5 | 0 | 26 | 2 |
| Adbol | 5 | 1 | 24 | 1 |
| Pollock-Hill | 5 | 0 | 25 | 1 |
| Shintre | 5 | 0 | 38 | 1 |
| Athaley | 0.5 | 0 | 14 | 0 |