On a damp and blustery day, St. Michael’s made the long journey up the M74 to Hughenden. Following a week of wet weather including heavy rain on the Friday night the ground was surprisingly dry and a 12 o’clock start was on!
Hillhead won the toss and elected to bowl first on a wicket that was showing a lot of wear from the previous games. Owing to the wet weather through the week, unfortunately a new strip hadn’t been able to have been prepared.
St. Michael’s were cautious against the new ball attack of Krushnesh Patel and Kesh Soni, the bounce was very variable and the ball was seaming a lot. K. Patel made the breakthrough dismissing R. Macleod 9 with a brilliant catch off his own bowling! 27/1
K. Soni got in on the act at the start of the 12th dismissing B. Nel (2) who was caught at mid off by Deil Patel trying an ambitious drive to a ball on the up. 30/2 The very next ball R. Coy batting #4 called skipper R. McNay through for a single that was never on and was run out by Darshan Chatrathi with Jim Lindley-Dawe doing the rest. 30/3.
St. Michael’s recovered after the flurry of wickets, with R. Coy and new batter C. Lumb being very watchful against the bowling of John Dew and Shash Mazumder. Both rode their luck at time, especially Coy who seemed intent on trying to run himself out, however the fielding was below par on several occasions and he got away with it!
Lindley-Dawe turned to the spin of D. Chatrathi, and he picked up the 4th wicket of McNay (11) in his 2nd over, caught off a wide long hop which was absolutely spanked into Bartlett’s hands. A great grab! 76/4 in the 24th over. Bartlett bowled the last over before drinks but didn’t trouble the batters.
St. Michael’s 79/4 at drinks.
Whether Hillhead felt that the game was won and eased off, or whether that does Coy a disservice is something that can be debated until the cows come home. However, through a mixture of aggressive running, sloppy fielding and the punishing of the bad ball, St. Michael’s started to assert themselves more on the game and the runs started to flow a lot more freely.
Coy took a liking to Chatrathi’s bowling and hit 2 big sixes over long on taking on the fielder on the boundary. The 14 overs since drinks had gone for a staggering 82 runs, the vast majority off the bat of Coy who had brought up his 50 with flare!
Mazumder was brought back on, this time from the Hospital end and hit twice in his first over! C. Bowie (17) was bowled with a ball that kept low and cartwheeled middle and leg stump out of the ground, thus breaking a 85 run partnership. The very next ball S. Naizia was out LBW for a golden.
162/6 off 40 overs.
Coy finally fell for 92, Arnav Mehta getting one to nip down the hill with Lindley-Dawe doing the rest. 162/7. Mazumder was now on fire getting N. Fazli (0) caught Mehta and then dismissing Scotland Womens U19 captain Niamh Muir caught and bowled for 5. 169/9 with 6 overs left.
K. Patel wrapped up the St. Michael’s innings in the 47th over bowling F. Hosankhial (0). The 2nd top scorer behind Coy was E. Xtra with 24 (17 wides)
St. Michael’s 178 all out (47 overs)
R. Coy 92
S. Mazumder 4/32, K. Patel 2/11
After a plentiful tea the chance of any further play fizzled out with over an hour of intense heavy rain. After some thoroughly enjoyable chats between the opposition teams, the Captains shook hands and let everybody get away in plenty of time for the Champions League final later that evening.
A frustrating day, one where if Hillhead had taken the multiple chances, we were given to run out Coy would have probably led to dismissing St. Michael’s for under 100 and given us a great chance to chase it down before the rains came.
1s have a free weekend next Saturday and the Sunday sees Skipper Jim Lindley-Dawe attempt to climb Ben Lomond in full cricket gear – raising money for the creation of a small war memorial which is going to be situated somewhere in the grounds of the Sports Club.
