The Umpire Strikes Back?

A second visit to Sunbury in a fortnight for some of the team as 4 of last weekend’s Trust team (Seth McDowall/Tommy Bates/Alvin Richard Sathya/Will Brewis) returned to Sunbury for this week’s 2nd team fixture.
The 4th placed Llamas beat 5th placed Sunbury by 10 wickets earlier in the season and would expect a tighter game this time around with Sunbury looking to reverse the result.
Team changes, as is the norm, with Captain Harry McInley and U15 George McLoughlin moving up to the 1st team being replaced by a returning Ant Ireland and Alvin Richard Sathya

With Captain Harry McInley (along with U15 George McLoughlin) up in the 1st team it was Vice -Captain David Gent leading the troops. Genty duly won the toss but lost his own wicket with the 2nd ball of the game as he dragged one on from Sara Kalsi and the Llamas were 1-1. Fellow opener Seth McDowall was then given a tough time by fellow U16 bowler Nav Sharma who was getting the ball to lift off a length and three times struck Seth in the nether regions and also got a delivery to hit one of Seth’s stumps without removing the bails. Unusually for Seth, who normally scores his runs quickly, his 10 runs today came in 21 deliveries when in attempting to hook he got an edge to be well caught by a leaping Sunbury Captain/Wicket Keeper from the bowling of Saran Kalsi to see the Llamas at 44-2 in just the 7th over.

Ashwin Bhat hit his 1st ball for 4 and then Ashwin and Luke Sheridan had an all run 4 before Luke (31) lobbed a ball to point to be caught by Ed Hughes off Nav Sharma’s bowling (10-0-47-1) and the Llamas were 67-3. With the score still on 67 the 4th wicket went down when Ashwin (14) fell next over (15th) to an excellent diving one handed slip catch by Jonathan Charles off U16 Tom Burgess’s bowling.

Ant Ireland (15) had settled in with 3 fours and was looking comfortable when he was given out lbw to Tom Burgess; a decision that can often spoil a batsman’s day and in Ant’s case his good nature was severely tested as the Llamas lost their 5th wicket with the score 96-5 in the 19th over as the Llamas were in danger of being bowled out cheaply.

But with Jonny Flanders joining Hutch (10 no) in the 19th over, the pair set about rescuing the innings for the Llamas and overs 24, 25 & 26 brought 13, 14 & 11 runs respectively. Hutch was 1st to reach his 50 when taking 3 fours from one over (32nd) from spinner Jonathan Charles; followed by Jonny Flanders reaching his 50 in the 34th over as their partnership reached 100 as the players took their 2nd drinks break. Suitably refreshed the pair raced on with 2 more overs of 14 runs each and the score had reached 238 when the 6th wicket fell when Jonny Flanders (71 from 74 balls with 46 in boundaries) was given out caught behind to Saran Kalsi when even the wicket keeper didn’t appeal. LBW’s aren’t the only decisions that can spoil a batsman’s day and this time it was Jonny’s good nature that was severely tested as the Llamas lost their 6th wicket with the score 238 in the 39th over. The pair had put on 142 from overs 19 to 39 and put the Llamas in a strong position with 11 overs left.

Hutch, on 98, was getting ever closer to his ton and will doubtless be giving himself a good talking to as he was caught behind going for a big hit as Darren London took the catch off Saran Kalsi and the 7th wicket went down in the 43rd over with the score 268-7. Same over saw a brief (2 balls) stay from Alvin as his 1st ball four was followed by a caught & bowled for Saran Kalsi’s 5th wicket (10-0-57-5) and Will Brewis’s stay was also short as Jonathan Charles (6-1-44-1) got one under Will’s bat to bowl him for 1 and leave the Llamas at 273-9 in the 44th over. Toby joined Tommy Bates (12 no at a run a ball) and hit a couple of 4’s but the Llama innings finished when Toby (13) was caught at mid on from a ball from Tom Burgess (7.4-0-44-3) that was close to going over waist high. The Llamas didn’t use up all of their overs but it would be churlish to complain as the Llamas had posted a challenging 292 all out.

Sunbury opener Darren London hit 2 fours but the Llama seam attack were soon on the front foot as the opening bowlers combined with Toby Briggs taking a catch at slip to dismiss Darren (11) and give Will Brewis his 1st wicket. 11-1 in the 4th over was soon 11-2 in the 5th over as a Tommy Bates/Luke Sheridan combination ran out Chirag Dasghose (0) when a single was never on. Will Brewis then had Ed Hughes (0) caught behind by Ashwin Bhat as Sunbury were 12-3 in just the 6th over. Toby’s turn next (8-1-28-1) when he clean bowled Devansh Popley who having hit 5 fours in his 23 was looking to get Sunbury back into the run chase, but at 42-4 in the 11th over, that now looked a tall order.

The 17th over brought a bowling change as Hutch returned to the bowling ranks and got 9 good overs under his belt (0-38). Imran Rashid and Jonathan Charles put on a 50 partnership before Alvin arrived to dismiss them both. Firstly clean bowling Imran Rashid (27) then clean bowling Jonathan Charles (37) as Sunbury went from 104-5 to 107-6 at the half way 25 over stage. Alvin was now taking centre stage but this time with his fielding as he ran out U15 Aaditya Jhamb (6) for the 7th wicket with Sunbury 7 down for 126 in the 28th over.

With 22 overs left but just 3 wickets in hand Sunbury were still 166 runs behind but their tail began to wag as Naavya Sharma and Jack Greaves took on the spinners as Tommy Bates (6-0-33-0) and Jonny Flanders (5-0-26-0) attempted to break the partnership.

Luke Sheridan was having a curate’s egg kind of day in the field having dropped an easy chance off Toby’s bowling earlier on, Luke then had a magnificent diving effort running round at wide mid on to try to catch Naavya Sharma but despite getting his hand to the ball he couldn’t hold on. The partnership was broken with the score on 171 in the 38th over when Naavya tried the same shot and this time Luke took a terrific catch to dismiss Naavya (33) for the 3rdh wicket for Will Brewis. With the score on 173 the same combination got the 8th wicket when Luke Sheridan caught Jack Greaves (18) as Will followed up last week’s 3-23 with 10-1-43-4.

Tom Burgess hit a breezy 23 and Saran Kalsi hit 12 before Alvin was reintroduced into the attack and bowled Saran Kalsi to end the Sunbury innings on 210 all out after 46.4 overs (identical overs to the Llama innings). Although Alvin bowled 7 wides, when he gets his radar sorted his extra pace poses a real threat to the batsmen and all of his 3 wickets were clean bowled (8.4-0-38-3).

A win for the Llamas sees them consolidate 4th place on 209 points, 53 points ahead of 5th placed Sunbury on 156 points. With just 4 games left top placed Spencer on 257 look too far away to catch but we could close the gap to 2nd placed Wimbledon on 222 points, who we play next week at Park Lane.

After bowling 55 overs last week in 3hrs 10 minutes, the overs today took much longer (in both innings) but this was not the fault of either side as the home umpire took an age to walk to & from square leg where he stood in the shade on the boundary edge an then had the temerity to accuse the Llamas of taking too long to bowl the overs.