Ray Muller bowled his 10 overs against Sharma, who made 42, for figures of 3 for 47 - not bad. As the muscle had survived, I thought I would give it a real testing and send him in at No 3. Also his average had been climbing up with some red ink of late, so I thought I would take this opportunity to increase the divisor. Stead was plodding away at the other end trying to run singles but Ray kept his back facing the batsman at the striker's end - a lesson for all young cricketers (Jet Lee - the only one left). Ray's body gave up in the 22nd over for 33 with the score on 98. I was always very confident but had seen many a CCC collapse in the past and did not accept that that possibility was too remote to be unforeseeable. On reflection it was quite likely. The Doc came and went, telling those that would listen that he was hitting the ball quite well - yes, quite a good 6, thank you. Grocer's mate was wound up - he went through some sort of ritual before leaving the boundary line, walked 30 metres, took his jumper off and came back. Went out again speaking a brand of English I didn't comprehend. The Indians in Saracens tried noticeably harder. Osama hit Sharma just below the scorer's box - it was a vital 6. Next ball Sharma gave us 5 over throws as he speared the ball at the young Paki's stumps. It was great stuff and Ritchie, Bill and Tony would have loved it. Osama was removed from the wicket by Grocer.
Grocer, keen eyed as he is, saw that I had the pads on and decided that a rogue lbw would cause fatal damage to my batting average in a way which would allow Stead to regain the initiative. I answered the call because there has been some unfair and unjust comments made recently about the size of my heart in difficult situations. I asked Alice to charge up the red pen and strode to the wicket with my only intention being not to be hit on the pads.
The red ink is dry in the book and the game has gone into the CCC annals of history. Stead pushed the ball, untimed, around the park for the whole innings for 77 and it never, I promise, never crossed my mind to run him out, even though we had 6 wickets in hand - no really.
Anyway - well done chaps. That game was about as good as we can do, taking our professional approach to new levels in all facets of the game. I suppose it will be the same old rubbish new time we run out on the park, but it was good to have a fines session again!
No game next week. Special report on what could have happened between Nomads and CCC when it rained.
