2's back to winning ways as Harpenden Dolphins hit the beach

After the first 5 games the Village 2's were languishing in the unfamiliar position of 9th place, having won only a single limited overs game. The first of the timed games was away against Harpenden Dolphins on a sunny blustery day at Rothamsted Park, Harpenden on a pitch with as many slopes as the Burtonhole Oval. The skipper managed to keep his 100% record of losing every toss and the Dolphins elected to bowl first. Opening bowler Adam Roche was bowling downhill short of a length and was difficult to get away without challenging the stumps, whilst Ron Giovanni bowled a very tight line uphill. Zaf Basit and Lee Crocker made steady progress until the 11th over when Lee (22) skied a short wide delivery to point (25/1). Andrew Teague joined Zaf and the progress continued until Zaf (7) chopped a slightly too straight ball onto his stumps to give Roche his second wicket (33/2, 13th over). Anand Kumar looked solid and in sparkling form and the score had pushed steadily along to 61 when Andrew (8) was yorked by the accurate left arm seam bowling of Ollie Lacey (61/3, 23 overs). Phil Smith, making his 2nd team debut in the Herts League, pushed the score along nicely whilst sparing the middle of his bat from excess wear before also chopping onto the stumps for a useful 17 (89/4, 33rd over). Unfortunately, Anand (33) snicked behind in the following over (93/5), leaving Rachit Chawla and Joe Sheridan to restart the innings. Rachit scored a brisk 10 before pulling to square leg (112/6, 39th over) and Joe and Darshan Raval looked to up the run rate until Joe (19) was caught at cover (137/7, 46th over). Knowing the importance of batting the full 53 overs in the timed format, Ali Javed looked to stick around though Darshan tucked into a Billy Giovanni over, taking 16 runs from it including a 6 over point. Darshan was finally out in the penultimate over for a useful 29 with Ali following him in the last over and the innings finished on 174 for 9 from the 53 overs.

Tea was taken with the skipper concerned that our score was below par on a fast outfield with some short boundaries and our bowling attack not quite as strong as the previous years. Darshan Raval and David Flavell opened the bowling attack and the Dolphins started as if they had a (beach?) party to go to but Darshan got the breakthrough with the 5th ball of the innings, a leg side full toss which Joe Sheridan took with a lovely diving catch at square leg (4/1). Legs continued the inroads with a full toss which Glinka spooned to Andrew Teague at cover, followed 4 balls later by a juicy half volley which number 4 bat drove to Smudge at mid off (9 for 3 from 2 overs). Flavell struck again in the 4th over with the Dolphins number 5 bat mishitting a full toss to Andrew Godfrey at mid on (10/4) and Darshan continued the carnage by bowling opener Adam Roche (10/5). A brief period of relative calm followed until Darshan struck twice in the 9th over, bowling the number 7 Dolphin and Anand taking Dolphin number 8 with a low catch at second slip to leave the Dolphins thrashing around in a Japanese fishermans net at 18/7. Dolphins captain Paul Bonney headed for deeper, less dangerous waters and stuck around, playing sensibly whilst punishing loose balls and the score crept along until youngster Ollie Lacey lost patience and attempted to drive Joe Sheridan but ended up caught at mid on for 14 by Lee Crocker (63/8, 18th over). The Dolphins skipper fell shortly afterwards for 39, driving straight to Andrew Teague at short midwicket in Anand's first over (65/9) and Joe wrapped up the innings with the final harpoon in the 21st over having Ron Giovanni caught at midwicket by Godders to wrap up a comfortable win by 106 runs.

It was a strange game really, with the Village innings making steady but never stellar progress, almost every batsman getting in then getting out, with Anand top scoring on 33, followed by Darshan (29), Lee (22), Joe (19) and Smudge (17). The depth of our batting was crucial as the wicket always offered the bowlers some assistance and the accurate bowling of Adam Roche (9 overs 2-29), Ron Giovanni (15 overs, 0-33) and Ollie Lacey 14 overs, 2-41) tied us down. The Dolphins innings never recovered from the calamitous start and only the Dolphins captain put up any sustained resistance. Once again our fielding was of a very high standard, with 8 catches being taken and only a single drop. The win takes us up to 7th place, with the unbeaten league leaders Potten End facing us next week.

Harpenden Dolphins 4 points, Mill Hill Village II 30 points