A fine but very dry day for cricket. Two weeks of drought-like conditions had made for a very parched pitch which was more west Texas than west Herts. Cricket in cowboy hats anyone?
As expected, Bungle lost the toss and the Dads in Pads elected to bat first. Despite the fast pitch, Fishers’ erratic bowling style was working a charm. Bungle collected the first wicket (bowled out) followed a few overs later by Reevo (caught Alex). Ian allowed only 6 runs in 2 overs and got a wicket, Alex found some beginner’s luck with two wickets. Although they hit quite a few 4’s and a couple of 6’s, the sad Dads in Pads were on 131 when the overs ran dry.
Fishers were then up to bat with a target of 132. Sound easy? Well, it isn’t. After 5 overs, Fishers had amassed an unfortunate total of 12 runs, but soon Reevo injected some tempo with 23 runs in an over and was retired.
Boxer racked up 25 runs with some clever batting and aggressive running, but in the mean time there were three catches which saw Bambi (duck), Bungle (duck) and Summers (… goose?) go out. With Boxer retired, Ian and Alex were up.
Things were going well for Ian until an inept running call by his partner saw him out for 11. At this point I think Boxer came back out and smashed an almost-6 but was caught.
Reevo went back on with 2 overs to go and 20 runs still needed. With only 9 men, Fishers were now 1 wicket away from defeat.
A quick 7 runs from Reevo and 1 from Alex gave 12 needed from the last over to win. Easy for Reevo – a 4, 6 and 6 gave Fishers the victory with 2 balls to spare and man of the match Reevo a total of 57 not out.
