We're back!

Scorecard (or as close to it as possible!)

After a lengthy spell without an organised game, we finally managed to get a midweek afternoon friendly against Badalona CC. They suffered some last minute drop outs and ended up only with 8 players but it was agreed that two of their players could bat twice in order to balance things out, after we ended up on 10 after a late drop out of our own. Badalona won the toss and chose to bat (probably wise, with a couple of their players also running late!)

Jones Paulson and Maxi Hoeck got us underway and started well. We were showing a bit of err...match rustiness in the field and with conceding extras but Quinn van Oordt (on debut) showed us how to confidently take a high catch. Wickets fell consistently throughout the innings and we got more into it. Jones and Suraj Jha picked up deserved 3fers, and there were 2 wickets apiece for Vishesh Gajjar and Wills Camfield. Quinn's bowling was too good for the batters to even get an edge on it and he harshly ended his debut innings wicketless. Badalona were bowled out for 180/9.

As well as two Badalona batters batting twice, we had agreed to give them a couple of sub fielders to get them to 10 players. Dev Kumar and Shane Lightley opened the batting for us but both fell with the score on 10. Suraj joined Quinn in the middle after the second wicket and the pair put on a rapid 78-run partnership, mostly thanks to some big hitting from Suraj (he was 19 off 4 balls). BICC captain Shriram Bhosale, on as one of the aforementioned sub fielders, volunteered himself for a bowl and was granted it by the Badalona captain to a chorus of boos from the onwatching BICC players. He thought he had Suraj caught behind two balls into his spell and eventually had him dismissed that way a couple of balls later with him four runs short of a debut BICC 50. Quinn was also dismissed with the score on 88 and we suddenly went from well in control to having a bit of a wobble. The middle order of Maxi, Vishesh and Wills smartly played the ball into the gaps, picking up easy singles but when the three of them were out, we were definitely behind. Shriram, now deciding that he wants to play for us again, hit a quick cameo but left a tall task of 40 runs from 5 overs to the final pair of Jones and Sam Phillipps. The crowd starting filing out in order to beat the traffic, the drinks kiosks closed up and the rest of the BICC team started packing up their belongings with the game dead and buried... What fools they were! The pair gave themselves a chance with 12 required off the last over, but could only manage eight runs and the win went to Badalona.

It was all a good warm up for our first tour to Andorra this weekend, where we will meet our French friends from Nimes CC at the new home of Cricket Club Andorra. Thanks to Omar and Badalona for a great game played in great spirits (and great weather!).
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Sam Phillipps

10/1 chasing 181. Quinn walks into replace Dev