Mission Impossible and the Great Escape

Mission Impossible and The Great Escape combined could not match the turnaround that took place at Park Lane on Saturday where the cast of characters were the Llama and Esher 2nd elevens.

The co-stars were Connor Newbold and Ashwin Bhat; but more of them later although you’ve no doubt heard the story, and by now; the ending.
Smudger lost the toss and we had to field on a sweltering hot day; having eventually gained access to the pavilion and more importantly, the stumps.

Hutch (8-0-35-1) opened the bowling and got a ball to come in to have Esher opener Mark Hopkinson lbw not playing a shot. By the 7th over Esher lost their 2nd wicket when a mix up resulted in keeper Ashwin Bhat throwing to the non striker’s end to run out Almaher Shelley (15) with the score now 31-2.

Ollie Thilo (8-1-36-1), bowling as quickly as ever, then had Ollie John (22) caught by Harry McInley and Esher were 47-3 in the 10th over. Despite J Slaney briefly pushing the run rate along with a series of powerfully hit boundaries, the score had reached 74 in the 17th over when Esher captain Alex Mason (3) played-on to be bowled by Johnny Flanders. The 5th wicket came in Harry McInley’s (8-1-34-1) 2nd over when Neil Saker took a sharp chance at 1st slip.

Half way score 88-5 after 20 overs​.

Connor Newbold came into the attack and in his 2nd over he found the edge of Tom Brown's bat (7) for Ashwin Bhat to take a good catch with Esher now 105-6 in the 23rd over.

The Llamas looked on top and Angus Barrett (10) was the 7th wicket to fall when Connor leapt to take a caught and bowled and it was Connor again (7-0-53-3) when he finally removed Esher’s J Slaney, who had scored a powerful 59 including 7 fours and a 6, caught at deep mid on by Henry Tye to peg Esher back to 140-8 in the 28th over.

Although the Llamas had regularly been taking wickets they needed to get through the tail as with 12 overs still left they could be chasing a big target; however it was not to be and the Esher tail duly wagged with Jonathan Miles (28no) and Ollie Baker (35) taking the Esher score to 195 in the 38th over when a returning Jonny Flanders (7-0-30-2) had Ollie Baker caught by Harry McInley and Esher finished their 40 overs on 210-9.
Allowing for the Covid regulations (sanitising) the Surrey Championship say the finishing time for the 1st innings should be 3.40 for 40 overs from a 1 o'clock start, however we didn't finish our overs until a half hour later at 4.10 (drinks and plenty of field changes) and this extra half hour in sweltering heat wasn't ideal preparation for batting.

Jonny Flanders opened for the Llamas but it was his opening partner Smudger who was 1st out bowled by Tom Brown for 2 in the 2nd over.
Jonny Flanders continued his free flowing batting and powered his way to 40 from 30 balls with 5 fours and a six; but in the 8th over the game was firmly turned in Esher’s direction.

Firstly Jonny Flanders got an edge to be caught behind by Alex Mason off Tom Brown and the same combination then removed Sakes 1st ball and then Henry Tye became the hat trick ball when he was out lbw to a ball that kept low and the Llamas were now 53-4 after 8 overs and Tom Brown had 4 wickets (6-1-33-4).

Esher, with their tails up made further inroads when James Halton (1) was given lbw to Ruari (Gaelic for Rory he said) Critchard and then Dan Taylor had Harry McInley (6) caught and Jonathan Miles had Hutch (1) caught behind to see the Llamas reeling at 64-7. A brief respite from Will Brewis (7) before a long stride didn't save him from being out lbw to Dan Taylor for 77-8 and then Ollie T became Dan Taylor's 3rd wicket (8-1-35-3) and the Llamas were nearly all done at 77-9 at the half way stage of 20 overs.

But the game wasn't quite over as Esher probably just expected a brief tail-end slog.

Ashwin Bhat, who had come to the wicket in the 2nd over with the score on 4 was 18 overs later in the 20th over, not out on 12; while he patiently waited for a partner to stay with him. That partner duly arrived in the form of Connor Newbold and in the words of Mission Impossible they chose to accept the mission of taking the Llamas from 77-9 to victory.

The pair initially brought some respectability taking the score onto 105-9 after 24 overs. Having reached respectability the pair then started to have a bit of fun and by the 30th over were on 142 with 69 needed from the last 10 overs.

Ashwin reached his 50 in the 33rd over and then Connor reached his 50 in the 35th over having taken the score to a 100 partnership at 177-9.
10 more runs from the 36th and the 37th overs brought the Llamas to the edge of victory with the score now 197-9 after 37 overs.

Cool heads ; even in this sweltering heat, then saw the Llamas home with 4 leg byes to the cheers of the large crowd as the ball reached the boundary with 7 balls to spare and a record Surrey Championship 10th wicket stand (all divisions) of 135 unbroken ( beating Sanderstead’s 2017 record last pair of 116 unbroken.)

I doubt very many would recall seeing a comeback as good as this and it had to be something special to take the headlines when there was also a hat trick in the match.

Man of the match?

This was very much a partnership to be shared between Connor with his 69no with 10 fours and a 6 from 63 balls to go with his 3 wickets and Ashwin with his 58no and a catch and run out.

And thanks to Hilary Baxter for taken on the scoring role although we should say every game doesn’t quite deliver this excitement.