Village get the 2015 season up and running

After a below par opening day performance, the 1st team got back to winning ways on home turf on Match day 2. MHV were invited to bat first by the visitors, Totteridge Millhillians 3s and the restored opening pair of Naz Asif (19) and Dan Potter (38) got the innings off to a solid start and at good pace, putting on 44 for the first wicket. The mainstay of the Village total was a typically punchy 99 from Marcus Cara. After 30 overs the score was 170-3 and a substantial total looked likely. However, good tight bowling and loss of wickets slowed the run rate considerably. The rest of the batting order only managed to chip in with bits and pieces, although there was enough evidence to suggest debutant Saurabh Singh (10) will make useful contributions in the middle order in games to come. Young Cara lost significant momentum as he approached 3 figures and ended up chipping up a tame caught and bowled chance, just one run short of a century he probably did enough to earn. The Village innings rather petered out after that and ended up at 235 all out, with the home side unforgivably failing to use up 11 ball of their allotted 50 overs.

235 runs still represented a competitive score, even in the new 50 over a side format. It proved to be more than enough, as the Village attack bowled with pace, precision and aggression to swiftly rip the heart out of the Opposition line up. Returning from a year’s sabbatical in India, Saahil Mehra was back at the races this week with an excellent unbroken spell of 4-27 in 10 overs. His fellow opening bowler, Captain Dave Overton (2-49) took the first two wickets to fall. TMCC made a brief attempt to fight back and stabilise the innings but Andy Potter had other ideas. None of the tail could deal with his classical away swing bowling. He blew away the tail with a devastating spell of 4-21 in 5.2 overs, all four of his victims bowled playing down the wrong line.

Not a perfect performance by any means but it was certainly a lot better than the opening day. There remains room for improvement in the batting order, with several players yet to find form. Once again catching was a problem, with a handful of chances being spilled, a habit that could prove costly again in future games. Nevertheless, 30 well deserved points which take Mill Hill Village to 3rd in the early season table.