21 June 2008 – St Lukes A v Petts Wood Tudor (friendly) Away
In a hark back to former days, St Lukes embarked upon an expedition to the countryside in search of some ‘friendly’ opposition – this time to “the garden of England” (quote from Wasif). On a windy afternoon that got brighter the further easy we went, the convoy arrived at Petts Wood in dribs and drabs with Timmy B bringing up the rear (having also dropped the kit off to the first team on the way). Hemant, skipper for the day, promptly lost the toss and St Lukes were batting on what looked a decent pitch with a large, sloping and somewhat ‘rural’ outfield. Unusually, this was a ‘timed’ game, tea at 4.35 and then 1 hour plus 20 overs after tea.
Richie B and Raj started carefully and had put 23 on the board before Raj (12) was bowled playing back. This brought Wasif to the crease and he and Richie took the score along to 69 before Richie was caught for 41 (including 7 fours). Mitsi came in at 4 and he and Wasif continued to take the score along nicely bringing up the 100 in only 26 overs before Wasif perished for 38 (off only 53 balls). This brought James to the crease and he quickly found the boundary with some crisp driving. Mitsi’s quick ‘dash’ (24 off 18 balls) came to end quickly followed by Shoukat (4) and Ahmed (4). With the score at 160-6 and only a few overs left the question was whether the tail would ‘wag’. But James (47 no) and Hemant (16 no) made sure that the scoreboard kept moving with a stand of 35 off only 21 balls (the last 6 overs cost 62 runs) taking St Lukes to a decent 195-6 in 39 overs.
After a resplendent tea – with several St Lukes’ players over-indulging of the cakes and tarts – play
resumed. Petts Wood signalled their intent
with Bob’s first ball dispatched for four by Demarzo
Jnr. The same pair were caught up in
some controversy soon after when Demarzo appeared to
be caught at short leg by Wasif – an appeal upheld by
the umpire. With Demarzo
adamant that he had hit the ball into the ground and the square leg umpire
unsighted, St Lukes withdrew the appeal. Had we known Demarzo
was the opposition’s best batsman, would smack the
ball all around the ground and finish on 81 not out – we might not have been so
generous. However, such is life and it
was a friendly. After that let off Demarzo and Thurston (27) took the score to 54 before the
latter was LBW to Gopi. While all the remaining batsmen scored (some)
none got above 8 – which gave a top-heavy look to the scorebook. At 139-6 and Demarzo
well set the game could have gone either way but some tight bowling/fielding
and careful batting took Petts Wood to 164-8 at the
end of their allotted overs. A draw and a pretty even draw at that. Hemant switched the bowlers regularly with Mitsi being the pick (11-3) but some success also for Hemant (29-2), Gopi (14-1), Tim
(22-1) and Ahmed (29-1) in his final game for the club before jetting off to
Man of the match – plenty to pick from but the captain’s choice was Wasif, played with confidence and kept the score moving in an unfamiliar No3 position.