Ickleford hang on for draw in another rain affected game

This week’s opponents were third placed Ickleford IIIs, with the MHV 2’s one place behind in fourth. Yet again your skipper won a toss he really wanted to lose and chose to bat on another rainy Saturday after last weeks reverse. Openers Sunny Raval and Lee Crocker started slowly and both could have been back in the hutch after 6 overs as opening bowler Sam Williamson had straightforward catches fortunately dropped at first slip. After these early escapes, Raval and Crocker laid into the bowling without mercy, the only respite for the bowlers being a rain break and an early tea, to establish what must be a record opening partnership for the 2’s of 183 in 27.1 overs before Crocker finally fell caught for 81. The match had now been shortened to 72 overs and the rapid scoring made an early declaration possible, delayed only by waiting for Sunny to get his hundred and the loss of the wickets of Naz Asif (10) and Lee Cara (11). Sunny eventually crawled through the nervous 90’s and the declaration came at 215-3 from 32 overs, leaving Ickleford 40 overs to chase.

Spinners Raza Kazmi and Sanket Shah opened with the old ball and Sanket immediately struck, having Mark Bennett caught by Lee Crocker for 3 (7/1). Left handed opener Mark Howard and Dave Pursey then built a solid partnership with Howard playing some fine attacking shots to keep Ickleford interested until Pursey was caught by Lee Cara from the accurate lines of Naz Asif (74/1). The game seemed to be drifting away from us until Naz twice struck with two wickets in one over to leave Ickleford on 99/4 and 100/6. Naz got his 6th wicket and Darshan finally had stubborn opener Howard well caught at gully by brother Sunny after several slip and gully drives had eluded the fielders. Sunny replaced Darshan and got the 9th wicket of veteran Roy Izzard caught at slip by Naz in the 38th over setting up the chance of a last gasp victory for the 2’s. Sunny had two balls at number 11 batsman John Ross before number 10 batsman Nick Webb, who had been forced off the field after injuring his side opening the bowling , comfortably blocked out the last over from Naz, leaving Ickleford on 113 for 9 from 40 overs.

Conclusions
After early escapes, some great batting from Sunny Raval and Lee Crocker (again) were the highlight of the Village innings and allowed an early declaration to try to force a win. Naz was the pick of the bowlers with 6 for 29 from 13 overs. We would almost certainly have won had we chose to bowl first against a relatively weak Ickleford side who lost their opening bowler injured after 6 overs. Rain shortened the game by 18 overs which also reduced our chances.

Mill Hill Village IIs 19 points, Ickleford 5 points.

Next week, Ware 2’s away.