Chumps

Losing the toss on a drying wicket wasn’t the ideal start to the second game of the season. The Chorleywood skipper made the correct decision in putting the Village 2’s in to bat. Openers Zaf Basit and Lee Crocker were facing the naggingly accurate slow bowling of Martin Tyler and David Harrigan and it wasn’t long before Zaf was back in the pavilion, out LBW caught on the back foot by Harrigan in front of his stumps (7/1). Crocker was joined by Sunny Raval who immediately looked in form, playing a range of stylish attacking shots. Unfortunately Sunny also didn’t last long, again LBW for 12 on the back foot to Tyler bowling from the Cowfield End (30/2). Pete Jaffe came in at 4 and quickly tucked into the bowling before settling down to his usual sensible approach. Crocker and Jaffe pushed the score along nicely before Crocker was tempted by a long hop which didn’t bounce and got the thinnest of bottom edges to be bowled by Harrigan for 27 (61/3).Tyler then removed the Village middle order - Dave Knight (caught, 1), Sanket Shah (bowled for 3 whilst planespotting) and Adil Mehmood (bowled, 4) to leave us on 69 for 6, with Jaffe immediately following, well caught at midwicket after not quite getting hold of one of the numerous poor balls from change bowler Harry Hardcastle. Raheel Zaman and Graeme Burton then provided a rare period of stability in the Village innings and swiftly took the total to 107 before Burton played an unnecessary aggressive shot and was caught on 13. At the other end Raheel was playing an aggressive innings in an attempt to turn the tide and was joined by Dave Flavell who defended solidly whilst Raheel bashed the ball around, including 20 from a remarkable over bowled by Hardcastle, including his third and final beamer and completed by Watkiss, who also managed a couple of high no balls himself. The removal of Hardcastle did us no favours as opening bowler Harrigan returned and had Flavell well caught at short cover from a low full toss (140/9). Raheel had somehow managed to cross during this shot and was bowled for 47 by Harrigan’s next ball, 140 all out from only 28.2 overs, leaving Darshan Raval stranded without facing a ball.

Tea was taken and with 8 bowlers in the side, we felt that we had a slight chance if we could make early inroads, however Chorleywood having71 overs to chase 140 meant that we could exert absolutely no scoring rate pressure. As slow bowling had proved to be effective, we started with Burton and Flavell bowling with the old ball. Chorleywood were clearly in no hurry (and why should they be?) and the veteran opening pair of Fowler and Tyler blocked anything straight whilst latching on to the occasional poor ball. As had happened on several occasions in the Village innings, a poor ball from Flavell took the first wicket, with Adil Mehmood taking a lovely diving catch at extra cover to dismiss Tyler for 4 (8/1). Hardcastle Senior and Fowler then continued the slow but steady progress until Fowler didn’t connect fully with a straight drive and was caught for 17 at mid off by Flavell off Burton (37/2). Number 4 batsman Sherali didn’t last long and was bowled by Burton (41/3). Incoming batsman Reeve and Hardcastle pushed the score on steadily to 84 before Reeve was well caught one handed at midwicket by Flavell (84/4). Hardcastle was then dismissed next ball by a low catch from Burton at gully to put Lee Crocker on a hat trick (84/5). The usual hat trick ball long hop duly followed but Andy Orange was bowled shortly afterwards by Darshan Raval (94/6). Mark Watkiss then took a cross batted swipe at a straight ball from Darshan and was plumb LBW (113/7), shortly followed by Harrigan, caught by Darshan off Adil Mehmood’s bowling to give us the sniff of an unlikely win at 116/8. A couple of hopeful LBW shouts were turned down and Graeme Burton bowled one of those balls that go through everything but captain Robert Dunstone and Hardcastle Junior saw Chorleywood home with 14 overs to spare!

Conclusions It was a good toss to win, the conditions favoured the slow but accurate Chorleywood bowlers. Too many of the Village batsmen were out playing unnecessarily aggressive shots, and the relatively quick run rate went against us with Chorleywood having a massive 71 overs to chase our meagre total. If we had scored 140 in 53 overs we would have had a better chance of winning. The only plus points from our performance were the excellent bowling and fielding performance.
Mill Hill Village IIs 10 points, Chorleywood 30 points.