Close Encounters of the Nervous Kind

With the drizzle stopping just in time for the game to get underway for the midday start time, Smudger won the toss and invited Sunbury to bat first in conditions under low dark cloud.

It looked like a good toss to win and the Llama opening bowlers both had early success as firstly Toby Briggs had Jack Greaves (0) caught at 2nd slip by George Elliston from the 3rd ball of the match and this was followed up by a wicket maiden from Will Brewis as Sean Ventham (1) hooked a ball to deep fine leg where Advaith Bali took the catch and Sunbury were 1-2 after 2 overs. The Llama squeeze continued as after 6 overs Sunbury were 3-2. Four boundaries before Will Brewis struck again getting U19 (one of 5 in the Sunbury side) Chirag Dasghose lbw for 8 to have Sunbury at 19-3. The last over of Will’s opening spell (his 7th) saw Captain dismiss Captain as Darren London (8) was caught by Jon Smith at mid off for Will’s 3rd wicket (9.2-3-32-3). Next over (15th) 43-4 became 43-5 as Michael Smith (0) was bowled by Toby Briggs (10-3-27-2....and not a leg side wide in sight !!).

A break for rain meant the 100 over minimum match was reduced by 3 overs per side down to 94 with a 52:42 split. Sunbury number 3 (U19) Aaryan Pillai needed a partner and briefly found one in Naavya Sharma before Naavya (10) went past a Harry McInley delivery to be easily stumped by Ashwin Bhat and after 30 overs Sunbury were 72-6. This time Aaryan had fellow U19 Ayush Dasghose stick around and with the score on 88 Aaryan had reached his 50 as the pair then took Sunbury past the 100 despite George Elliston stopping a four with a dive into (& demolishing at the same time) the fence at the front of the pavilion. Srikanth Vuppala was doing his own form of restricting the score with 13 accurate overs, without fair reward, for just 35 runs.

It was to be the Harry McInley and Ashwin Bhat combination again that got the 7th wicket as Ayush Dasghose (23) also ran past the ball and was stumped for Sunbury to be 124-7. Harry didn’t need any assistance as he bowled (U19) Ben Maskery (0) for 136-8 in the 46th over. Harry McInley and Ashwin Bhat then combined for the 3rd time as Aaryan Pillai was the 9th wicket to fall as he was finally out stumped for 81 (out of 151) for Harry’s 4th wicket (14-3-37-4) and Ashwin’s 3rd stumping. The Sunbury innings ended in the 52nd over when Seth McDowall ran out (U19) Asim Rehman (0) to finish the innings on 154 all out.

The Llamas reply initially was 42 overs but in dismissing Sunbury in the 51st over (out of 52 available) the Llamas gained an over up to 43. However cricket isn’t that simple and in an effort to reward sides bowling their overs quickly there is a calculation that takes the 2nd innings restart time through to the (timed) end of game at 6.50 and the side batting second is entitled to receive a minimum of 16 overs an hour (3.75 minutes per over) and this calculation gave the Llamas 45 overs to get 155 runs and of course Sunbury to get 10 wickets.

Opener Luke Haughton got the innings underway with a couple of 4’s before he was caught behind by Darren London off the bowling of (U19) Aaryan Pillai who was having a busy day. From 17-1 in the 5th over it became 17-2 in the 6th as fellow opening bowler Naavya Sharma bowled Smudger (6) with one bail being temporarily lost as it had disappeared 30 yards towards the boundary. Naavya got his 2nd wicket (9-3-17-2) having Ashwin Bhat (0) lbw and the Llamas were on the back foot at 27-3 in the 8th over. Next over Seth McDowall hit a 4 first ball before becoming Aaryan Pillai’s 2nd wicket when he was bowled for 5 and the Llamas were struggling at 32-4.

David Gent joined Advaith Bali for a brief rebuild before in the 22nd over Genty (18) was given out lbw to Jack Greaves bowling right arm round for the Llamas to be 63-5. Harry McInley (10), who has been Mr Consistency with both bat and ball all season, got a faint edge to be caught by keeper Darren London for Jack Greaves 2nd wicket (10-2-28-2) and at 75-6 perhaps this was time to play for a draw.

Enter George Elliston and playing for a draw was obviously not in George’s mind and with young Advaith the pair took the score to 123 when in the 38th over George was out caught in the gully for 32 for Aaryan Pillai’s 3rd wicket. The 38th over also saw Srikanth Vuppala (4) caught by deepish mid-off and the 8th Llama wicket fell with the score on 127 for Aaryan Pillai’s 4th wicket (11-1-50-4).

7 overs left with 28 runs to win but only 2 wickets in hand and it was the turn of the Llama youngsters as Will Brewis joined Advaith Bali. The initial allocated 42 overs passed as the Llamas got to 141 and the revised 43 over mark passed with the score on 145 (10 to win). The timed finish of 6.50 passed in the 44th over with the score on 147 as the pair slowly nudged the Llamas towards the target and in the 44th over Advaith reached his 50.

8 to win from the last over of a game made more interesting by the recalculation rule with both teams having the extra over(s) to reach the winning line. A single to Will Brewis from the 3rd ball of the over was followed by a 4 to Adi from the 4th ball to take the Llamas to 152-8. Three runs required from 2 balls with 2 wickets in hand. 5th ball saw Adi run out for 54 (the number 3’s were to top score for their respective teams).
With 1 ball to go all 3 results were possible with the Llamas needing 3 to win and Sunbury needing 1 wicket. However with the winning draw already in the Llamas hands Toby came to the wicket to be non striker as Will Brewis blocked the last delivery for the Llamas to finish on 152-9 just 2 runs short.

Those of a nervous disposition may need to take medication before watching the 2nd eleven as they continue to produce tight games; but once again great entertainment.

With all 5 of today’s games in the division ending in draws, and after 12 of the 18 games, the Llamas retain their top spot by 7 points. The top six are only separated by 17 points so chickens are far from being counted.