A 749 day streak broken

Having been offered the pitch during the week, we hastily organised a friendly against Men in Blue on Easter Sunday. With them a bit short, and us oversubscribed, Wills and Aman filled in for MIB while our newest member Karthik Sai made his BICC debut. The toss was somewhat negotiated, and we bowled first. Having previously agreed a 25-over game, we shortened it to a T20 from the off with lots of wet weather hanging around…

MIB were never fully able to get going and Maxi Hoeck and Karthik kept things tight early on. Maxi picked up the first wicket with the last ball of the of the first over, and there was a steady stream of wickets throughout the innings. Never was this more true than when Simon Eldridge was bowling his right-arm darts, although he needed a break and a sit down after the first two overs of his spell (definitely not anything to do with the fact that his second over was his least successful). He had picked up two wickets in his first over, the first a top edge that went about 3km up and might have hit the stumps on the way down, but for captain Shriram Bhosale to catch it with the gloves on. James Bentley at the “other end” got in on the act too, getting the dangerous Omar Ali caught by Maroof Shaikh (the first of his three catches). Zeeshan beat the next batter for pace, Vishesh beat the one after with guile before Simon came back and combined twice with Maroof for his third and fourth wickets. He finished with impressive figures of 4/24. Shriram bizarrely gave the last over to Maroof who had our own Aman LBW with his first ball and was unlucky not to get a second wicket next ball. MIB finished on 149/9, with their top 9 all getting out perfectly in order.

We had got lucky in the first innings, as the clouds were light and the rain stayed away. During the innings break, they got a bit darker and as the player were walking out it started spitting. Ujjwal managed to get himself out for a duck before our first rain delay after two overs. With showers coming and going, and varying levels of rain, we went back on and came off twice more before deciding to play on for a few more overs through it. Eventually, a heavier downpour after eight overs came and forced us off for good. We finished on 50/1 (short of the 52/1 DLS par score, for those counting), with Maroof (25*) and Shane Lightley (16*) left unbeaten. 

It was our first rain-affected game since our tour to the south of France last May, and our first in Catalonia since March 13th 2022! Given the forecast, we were probably lucky to get as many as 28 overs in, although it’s a shame as the game was very evenly poised and we haven’t managed to beat MIB in a while!

​Sam Phillipps

From the slightly brighter first innings...