Match Report: Woldingham vs NECC

Woldingham, away, is a lovely venue to play at.
After a rather scenic drive, all the nuances of village cricket await you: a 40-yard boundary; a 100-yard boundary; a sloping pitch to put Lord's to shame, and some very sketchy bowling actions. Sunburn and wind chill were both on the menu.

©K. Raval

Maybe that is why Jez decided to drive to Woodmansterne before coming to Woldingham.

We agreed to a 35-over a side game given the 2 pm start and Woldingham requested 9 overs per bowler because they were (fortunately) low on bowlers. Well, they had two.

Having two bowlers without the scars of the previous Sunday at Cheam, Jack and Aaron, Charlie and I agreed that we should field first. WVCC won the toss and elected to bat, leaving us to field at the warmest (or, less freezing) time of the day. Luke made his debut behind the wickets. Aaron and Jack bowled a probing and disciplined opening spell. Aaron, bowling up the hill, made the first breakthrough with one that bounced a little extra, thanks to a one-handed stunner at gully by Kashif. Jack should have had two or three already but Luke and the opposition umpire wouldn't have any of it. The latter explaining to the bowler that he could not give a batter out LBW if the ball had pitched outside off. It is important to note that no one had been hit on the head, yet.

Charlie and Aidan followed the opening bowlers with well-controlled, testing spells. Aidan bowling a 7-over spell, up the hill, delivered a new personal best. Raj joined in the attack with more consistent bowling after a few, awe-inspiring, diving saves in the field. This did not prevent Jack from calling Raj, Raj "Heels" Bajaj, later in the innings when Raj was uncharacteristically slow to stop a single off Jack's bowling. Raj returned the favour in the next over when he thought Jack was a bit slow in the field. Karma! Who needs enemies...

We had the unfortunate incident of Nico being hit on the ear while fielding at short mid-wicket and needed a visit to a local walk-in clinic. Thank you Mark for tending to Nico. Wickets kept coming regularly but the last two pairs put on close to 40 runs which were 35 more than I would have liked. WVCC ended at 131 for 9 but we should have kept them under 110. More ruthlessness needed from the captain. Notably, the bowling and fielding were good, consistent, throughout the innings and only five bowlers were required.

We felt comfortable chasing 132 on that wicket but we have lost four wickets in the first 15 to some disciplined-but-not-threatening bowling. Jez played on onto his stumps, Kalp was stumped while advancing to one down the leg side, Iain was caught and bowled trying to loft one over the bowler and Nico was struck in front, on the back leg by one that seamed in. Most notably, Nico returned with a bandaged ear to bat and Iain protected one end and started playing some shots before losing his wicket. During this time, Raj tried his hand at umpiring and refused to call wide to a couple of deliveries that reminded me of Harmison's first ball of the 2007 Ashes down under. On a possibly separate note, Raj was later seen with a KFC bucket in hand.

©K. Raval

 

Luke and Kashif came together with us needing 100 off 20 overs. Luke looked solid on one end while Kashif set off on a counter-attacking knock for the ages. Such was his form that he preferred the 100-yard boundary over the shorter one. Kashif finally fell for a quick 37 but by that point, he had put on around 65 with Luke and turned the match strongly in our favour. Luke made the most of his opportunity batting at six and nearly took us home with a solid innings of 46. He showed a lovely balance of defence and attack in support of Kashif and handled the match situation brilliantly after Kashif got out. Charlie was promoted to bat at the fall of Kashif's wicket in the hope that he would carry on his good form and not allow the required rate to climb up. Wielding his brand new New Balance bat for the first time, Charlie supported Luke brilliantly and took us home with a quick 20 not out, hitting a career-first 6.

A comfortable 4-wicket win in the end but not without its hiccups. Kashif being awarded the player of the match for his superb catch and breathtaking innings that all but won us the match. Hopefully, a win early on bodes well for the rest of the summer. If we can repeat yesterday for the next 19 Sundays, it will have been a good season. The only thing to change would be more runs from the top order and warmer temperatures. To put it mildly, unrelenting Easterly wind and single-digit temperatures kept the sting out of the sun in the second half of the match. As Raj exclaimed from mid-off at one point, "The wind is...windy!"

Thank you very much Dhillep and WVCC for hosting us.

Scorecard