Vital win against second placed Hitchin on a wet day

The forecast of heavy showers proved to be correct as the one dumped on the Village for about an hour from 12 until the theoretical start time of 1pm. Hitchin turned up and were very keen to get the game on – a refreshing change from some of our more reluctant opponents, and particularly surprising given that the Hitchin skipper had lost the toss at the second time of asking – he forgot to call first time – and had been put into bat. Fortunately the Village hadn’t seen much rain over the last few weeks and the pitch thirstily soaked up the water like Pete Jaffe sinks a shandy after a long innings (not that he had one this week).

We started just after 2, having lost 18 overs, making it a 44/38 over game. Hitchin’s openers were faced by the bounce of Ali Javed and the skidding accuracy of Naz Asif. Naz was bowling a lovely line outside off stump and was soon rewarded with the wicket of Mike Guest, caught behind by Zaf for 6 (14/1). This was shortly followed by Naz’s second, no 3 bat Greg Moss bowled for 6 (22/2) and third wickets, Jamie Clarke (1) caught at mid off by Flavell (26/3). At the other end, Ali was learning about bowling at the Cowfield End on the Village wicket as several short straight balls sat up in time honoured fashion and were pulled for 4. Ali was getting good bounce for a wet wicket and adjusted his line for the slope to produce a couple of chances to dismiss opener Peter Baker, juggled at slip by Matt Hawkes and at cover by Sunny – a dolly which hit him in the chest rather than in the hands. Ali’s fine spell was finally rewarded when the extra bounce hit the glove of Rich Porter (14) and ballooned to Naz at gully. Naz has been known to drop easy catches whilst taking absolute blinders, and he made sure of taking this chance by slipping over as he lined the catch up and taking an excellent catch whilst lying full length on the ground (41/4). Baker finally ran out of lives and was bowled by Matt Hawkes for a top scoring 32 (81/5), swiftly followed by Jason Willis (14), bowled by Naz (81/6). Captain Peter Gale (0) attempted to stem the tide of wickets but was bowled by a beauty from Sunny Raval, which seamed miles back up the hill from the Pavilion End to clip the top of leg stump (89/7), followed a similar ball which hit Ben Hankin’s off stump (91/8). Hawkesey then got his second wicket, Nathan Page (12) looping a catch to Jonny Gahan at point (102/9) before Sunny finished off the innings bowling last batsman Jonathan Grieves for 8. Hitchin 114 all out from 31.3 overs, giving us 50 overs to bat.

Naz and George Lee started the Village innings in typically contrasting fashions. Naz hit 10 and 12 from the first overs of Nathan Page and Jonathan Grieves before being run out by a direct hit from Peter Gale at cover trying to take a non-existent single in order to wrest the strike from Claw (23/1, Naz 22). Pete Jaffe (0) was then dismissed clipping a low full toss to square leg (24/2). Jonny Gahan (2) was then undone by the wet pitch and spooned a long hop to mid off to leave the Village response on 29 for 3 and put what we thought was a low Hitchin total into perspective. Matt Hawkes and George pushed the score on, with Matt batting aggressively and George looking like he was finally finding some form with the bat until George was deceived by Grieves and bowled for 14 (44/4). Zaf, having dropped down the order to have a rest after keeping, was either under- or over-rested and was plumb LBW in the same over for the second duck of the innings (44/5), with the game very much in the balance at this point. Sunny Raval (40*) and Matt then took the game away from Hitchin with an excellent partnership of 66 from the next 9 overs, ended with victory in sight when Matt was bowled for 34 (110/6). Sanket Shah strode in and hit the winning runs without further drama.

Conclusions As is always the case on a wet day, it was another good toss to win. The attitude of Hitchin skipper Peter Gale was excellent, wanting to get the game on in spite of having to bat on a wet wicket and happy to stay out in the middle of a particularly nasty shower. Ali Javed once again bowled a great spell yielding several chances but only one wicket, whilst Naz picked up 4 for 48 at the other end. Matt Hawkes reverting to seam bowling (2 for 34) and Sunny Raval in particular (3 for 2) also bowled well. Naz added his usual momentum with the bat whilst Matt (34) and Sunny (40) finished the job off well, illustrating the depth in our batting and bowling lineups.

This is a vital win against second placed Hitchin, taking us from 7th to 3rd place and right in the mix for promotion. Next week’s game is away to West Herts IIIs.

Mill Hill Village II 30 points, Hitchin III 6 points