Risinghurst Cricket Club

Recap

By John Thompson

On a steaming hot Saturday at Grovelands Road, bizarrely both teams wanted to field first, but fortunately for the Risinghurst 1st team, Oxford Downs 3rd’s won the toss and inserted us. After losing Martin very early on, and then both Sam and Sandeep with the score on 37, we need to consolidate first with Lucky (22) and Mansoor (91), taking the score to 90 before the next wicket fell. Joined by Romi (28), Mansoor then went on to the attack and started flaying the ball to all parts and narrowly missed out on both his own century and a century stand when the fifth wicket fell on 189. Most teams would have be content to finish on 250 but not this Risinghurst team, and Rakesh, Anand, Saurabh (27) and Govind (36*) continued to attack and we finished on a mammoth 288-9 after the full 45 overs, with 180 of them coming in the second half of the innings.

On a cloudless, still day, you’d think it would be hard to get much movement in the air, but both Rakesh (4-29) and Govind (3-32) did just that. Rakesh took the first wicket with a leading edge that went high before settling in Lucky’s hands at mid off, and then a second that went more gently to Anand in the gulley. Govind got his customary LBW dismissing one of Downs’ dangermen Alex Wildman. Rakesh castled the opposition skipper Tom Ling, and then had number 6, Murray caught off a leading edge that went even higher, caught again by Lucky, making what was not an easy catch look very comfortable indeed. Govind was next to strike, with another LBW to dismiss Gould for the fourth duck of the innings and leaving Downs on 27-6 and in a desperate position. Jake Kinderman now went on to the attack and with some solid defence from Stuart Walter doubled the score before Walter called for a quick single, only to see Lucky throw down the stumps with a bullet throw with only one and a half stumps to aim at and Walter looking a bit of a Wally ! Kinderman threw caution to the wind now, and after Govind bowled J Thompson (not THE JT, but an Oxford Downs imposter) with the total on 63, took a liking to Martin hitting him for two big sixes in one over that eventually went for 21. Number 10 Matty van der Wegte took Martin ‘downtown’ too, but Martin had the last laugh bowling him middle stump to leave Downs 9 down with 102 on the board and 20 overs still to bat. Meanwhile at the other end THE JT had finally come into the attack as Govind reluctantly took a blow. He immediately had Kinderman in all sorts of knots as the ball gripped and turned more than it has done all season, bowling him for 60 two balls later to leave us winners by 184 runs and 25 points to the good, closing in on Radley at the top of Division 6B.