Village literally crawl over the line

The return fixture, away against Old Haberdashers, was a contest between 1st and 2nd in the league and the final one of the split overs matches for this season. It is a format that has seen the Village 1st team undefeated throughout the 9 fixtures. There was nothing in the 1st innings of this match to suggest that this would be anything other than a routine victory, however it turned out to be anything but.

Old Habs won the toss and chose to bat. With the exception of Watts, who came in at No.6, most of the batsmen struggled to cope with or score freely against the Village attack. Wickets fell regularly but the innings had stability at one end at least and a modest total of 162 was cobbled together around the patient and competent 60 scored by Watts, who was last man out. Wickets were shared around between Saahil Mehra (3-27) and the pedigree’s chums, David Overton (2-34), M Asif (2-24) and R Downes (2-31). Felix McArthur Charles rolled back the years when affecting a great stop and excellent run out to remove the Habs Skipper who has been one of the few to look in control.

Despite the pitch being as bouncy as anything the Village has played on in recent years, the 163 target really didn't look to be sufficient. However the Village innings got off to a very shaky start and at 44-4 the game was in the balance. When Marcus Cara (38) and Majid Asif (46) steadied the ship with a 65 run stand, taking the total to 111 for 4, it looked like the Village were back in cruise control but they both fell in relatively quick succession to injudicious shots.

This brought about a period of very turgid cricket. Old Habs had slow bowlers on from both ends and very well set fields. The Village lower middle order had trouble rotating the strike and every time someone took on a big shot it seemed to fly in the air to a waiting fielder. 20 runs were scored in 14 overs and three further wickets were lost. At 143-8 the home side were definite favourites. The nervous watching 1st team could not see where the next runs were going to come from. Cometh the hour, cometh the horse. Saahil Mehra was in at number 9 with a point to prove and he immediately changed the momentum of the game. Two boundaries, one a huge pulled six over the scorebox, brought the Village tantalisingly close to victory. At which point the young home umpire got involved with a 2nd controversial LBW decision of the innings.

So the Village were 9 down, still needing 7 runs to win and with No's 10 & 11 at the crease both on nought. Richard Downes brought some calmness to the situation blocking the veteran Habs slow bowler at one end. He was dropped by the keeper having nicked one behind but edges when standing up are never easy. Three consecutive maidens were seen out by the pair and the tension was almost unbearable. Steve Pullen also looked reasonably assured, coping well with the returning opening bowler, mostly in defensive mode but eventually hooking one short ball to within a foot of the boundary for a one bounce four. Two were needed and nails were being chewed. Another pull shot to a short ball was attempted by Steve but this time it ballooned up to mid-on. Racing in to end the match, the catch was spilled low down by the disappointed fielder. Still two to win.

The tail enders were firmly stuck at their respective ends but eventually, the chance for a quick single arrived as Steve Pullen pushed a ball into the mid-wicket area. As he was a little slow to set off there was a chance of a run out at the bowlers end but the throw was slightly off target. Steve made his ground but over balanced and fell over as he arrived. In the meantime, the bowler missed the ball and the back up fielder also failed to gather it cleanly. Seeing the chance of another run to draw level, Richard called for a second. Steve got back to his feet and headed back to the keeper's end. He never looked like making it and in fact he didn't. Swerving to avoid a player on the way and overstriding to make his ground, he once again lost his balance and started going down in instalments. By the time he hit the ground, diving full length to reach the crease, the ball was in the wicket keeper's gloves. However Steve had hit the deck too early and was short of his ground by about a metre. Having gathered the incoming throw a couple of feet from the stumps, the Habs keeper almost certainly had time to stride over and remove the bails. In the panic of the situation, he inexplicably decided to throw the ball the short distance instead and missed the stumps entirely. Steve, who by now was going through his full repertoire of swimming strokes in an effort to make his ground, managed to scramble up and over the crease to bring the scores level. After the commotion had died down, it was left to the wily old former 1st team skipper Richard Downes to bring up the winning runs with his first scoring shot, a well-timed sweep for 4.

An exciting and hilarious finish to a relatively low scoring match. Over the two games, Old Habs proved themselves to be as good or better than any of the other sides faced and may well yet earn promotion. Despite batting poorly the Village secured another win that brings them another step closer to a 5th consecutive promotion and 4th Divisional title over that period.