1st XI back to winning ways

On a day that called for ice creams by the swimming pool rather than standing in full-length cotton trousers on a dried-out field of yellowing grass, Village skipper Danny Potter thought he had made the right choice himself when he won the toss and elected to bat – only for serious questions to be raised when by the 11th over, the side found themselves at 31-3 with none of the opening 3 batsmen passing double figures.
Thankfully a 100+ partnership between Jay Nandha at 4 and Majid Asif at 5 steadied the innings, before what remained at that point of Jay Nandha was bowled on 45 – the third time he has fallen just shy of his 50, raising serious questions about the young man’s stamina in this, or any other context. Asif soldiered on in the sweltering heat, continuing his recent run of good form with a hard-fought 83 featuring several classy shots to the rope.
Seeing the state of Asif after a long stint in the middle, number 7 bat Obaid Ur Rehman opted for a different method, smashing a quick-fire 65 that featured several lusty blows – one of which may or may not have led to a serious road traffic incident t’other side of some very tall trees.
The remaining batsman failed to trouble the scorers too much, aside from Devraj Ray who may have hit the shot of the day with a cover drive that some (no-one at all*) said reminded them of a young Don Bradman. The Village innings ended with what looked an imposing score of 259.

Following tea and with no respite from the heat, opening bowlers Marcus Cara and Shash Seam started well with Cara picking up the first wicket in his second over, while Seam started with 2 maidens. By the end of the innings, both openers would share almost the exact same figures of 10 overs, 2 maidens, 3 wickets for 34 runs with Shash getting 2 wickets – further demonstrating their good work on a hard day.
With one of the opposition batsman having to go off after 22 overs due to heat exhaustion, the Village side went about dismantling the shrunken Cockfosters line up with wickets falling at fairly regular intervals. Maj Asif picked up 2 wickets for just 11 runs from his 6.3 overs while Andy Potter nabbed a scalp for himself as well. Notably, leg-spinner Devraj Ray produced a somewhat insane spell of erratic leg-spin that, when it came right (approx. 19% of the time) managed to take 1 wicket, which could have been 2 had wicket keeper James Thompson had the flu on the day. Discussing Ray’s leg-spinning prowess, skipper Danny Potter was heard saying “we’d say it’s like discovering a diamond in the rough but Dev has never, even once, intentionally found the rough.” By the time 2 utterly drained sides shook hands at the end of a hellish day, Village had found winning form once again following last week’s blip, with a solid 81 run victory in the bag.

By Devraj Ray