Match Report: NECC vs ACME CC

Sunday 22nd August saw us back at South Norwood Lakes for another afternoon of cricket for a match with ACME CC. A brief but heavy shower threatened the game, but the sky cleared up in time for the match to start. The outfield was heavy, and the pitch was dry with some grass on it. Another occasion of not having enough players meant that our XI included George, a ‘colts' leg spinner, and, making his second appearance of the season on the team sheet, El Presidente, Mark Arthur. ACME won the toss and elected to field in bowling friendly conditions. 

Kathes and Vathsan shared the new ball as Kalp and Shah opened the batting for NECC. Both the opening bowlers showed good control and used the seam movement on offer to great effect. Vathsan challenged both edges of the bat and soon skittled the captain, Kalp, for three in his second over as the batter tried an injudicious on-drive. Sam joined Shah and they steadied the ship. Shah was keen to put the bad balls away and took two fours and a six in his innings of 15 before he was caught by Deacon off Harris. 

Sajid came in at the unfamiliar position of number four as he looked to build a platform with Sam at the other end. Any threat that the bowlers posed was amplified by their running between the wicket. One instance saw Sam run from the non-striker’s end to the other end and back when Sajid had not even left his crease. Harris and Jana, who took over from the opening bowlers, continued with some very tight bowling. Kathes finished wicketless after four overs having conceded 14 runs and Vathsan one for 10 with two maidens in his five overs. 

Harris looked the more threatening of the two as he regularly beat the bat and got his just reward when he had Sam and Bilal trapped LBW off consecutive deliveries in his fourth over. Both batsmen went back to deliveries that seamed back in when they should have been playing forward. This reduced the Exiles to 32 for four in the 15th over. 

Sajid, while finding it hard to score, kept one end secure until he could no longer resist the loopy off spin of Preston. His signature lofted drive over long-on was skied and seemed to be completely misjudged by Vathsan until he stuck out one hand behind him and pulled off a stunning catch. Manoj and Aaron came together at 39 for five in the 17th over and punished any scoring opportunities that they saw. Aaron looked in good touch as he muscled a six over midwicket off Preston and put Jana away for a four. 

As solid as they looked, there were some very interesting calls from Manoj with the running between the wickets rivalling Sam and Sajid’s earlier in the innings. Fortunately, there were no run outs . The pair seemed to be seeing us through to drinks but Jana bowled Aaron off the last ball before the break with an unintended off cutter. Vice-captain Charlie replaced Aaron and he was soon joined by Aidan as Manoj was adjudged LBW playing across the line from a straight ball from Deacon. Charlie and Aidan looked like a promising bet to see out the overs, but it was not to be. Deacon was once again the man to break the partnership when Aidan, looking to put away a full toss, top edged it only to be taken brilliantly by Nirusan running in from square leg. 

George came to the crease at number 10 and Charlie looked for some quick runs with only two wickets remaining. He struck two fours off Preston which ended his spell of seven overs with one for 23, including one maiden.

Mark Arthur comes out to bat getting some forward defensive tips from Charlie

Mark Arthur joined his nephew Charlie and took some tips from him on forward defence to try and bat out the 40 overs. Despite his best efforts, this didn’t come to fruition as Mark was bowled by Proctor off his second ball of the match. Charlie remained on 13 not out with the Exiles having been bowled out for 71. As we walked off for the change of innings and another one of Mary’s delicious teas, we were quietly confident that the seam and moreover the prodigious spin on offer, would make this an interesting chase. 

Bilal started with a maiden against opener Zaheer. Charlie, looking to continue his good form from previous week, struck in his first over to remove Dil. The following over saw Zaheer go after Bilal’s off spin and took 14 runs off the over lofting two fours and a six in the cow corner region. Charlie would have none of this and removed Zaheer caught at slip by Aidan. Two balls later, Charlie bowled the best ball of the season. Niruvan, the new batsman was facing only his second ball and in no hurry to score. Charlie, off his two-step run-up, let the ball go with a scrambled seam at what looked be about 25 mph. The ball began swing away from the batter. Niruvan, like any capable batsman, took his front foot across to cover the line of the ball. Standing up the stumps, wicket keeper Kalp moved to the batter’s offside with him. In the second half of its trajectory, the ball changed direction to swing into the batter. Niruvan was far too committed into his shot to adjust for this movement of the ball. Kalp was caught wrong footed too.

Niruvan got his front foot out of the way to be able to get his bat down on this yorker but, through no fault of his own, he only managed to let the ball through to his stumps. Charlie says he is a spinner but my rudimentary understanding of the Magnus effect (which causes a ball bowled by a spinner to drift) tells me that it would not cause a ball to drift out and then in, that is why I am calling it swing, not drift. Had I not seen this with my very own eyes, I would not have believed it. Well bowled Charlie! 

At 17 for 3, ACME had a tough chase on their hands. Skipper Andrew, batting at 3, was joined in the middle by Vathsan. Andrew survived a very testing over from Sajid early on, including a close LBW appeal. In response to said appeal, Deacon who was umpiring, decided to raise his hand to point in index finger to indicate that the direction of the ball was missing leg. Knowing Andrew’s prowess with the bat, it brought false, short-lived joy to the Exiles. Chasing a small total, both the batters were patient. They played themselves in before going for runs. 

Manoj could not replicate his fantastic spell from the previous week as he went wicketless. Aaron drew a couple of edges, one fell short of the keeper off the glove and a second went wide of the solitary slip; and beat the bat a few times but did not get any wickets. George bowled a solitary maiden before ACME chased down the total with seven wickets to spare. Charlie being the only one with wickets with figures of 3/18 off five overs with one maiden. 

Those figures, coupled with his 13 not out to make sure that we didn’t get less than what we got the opposition for last week. 

Charlie is the notable player of the match from NECC. Last week, after bowling out Trinity Oxley for 67 on their home ground, we were all out for 72 on ours. As Andrew Flintoff famously exclaimed to Dwayne Bravo, “this game has a funny way of biting you on the arse.” No matter who you are, cricket will keep you humble. That’s why we love it.

Scorecard