Manny five can't see off Chertsey in thriller

Another nail-biter from a weekend of chewed cuticles. Batting first on a tired and awkward pitch, the Cav batters struggled to find any fluency. It was another disappointing return from a strong Cav batting line-up. We were held together by a controlled knock from Srikanth, who batted with more care than his usual wham-bang reputation would suggest. His 64 put us in fair position to push on to 200, but the Chertsey bowlers pinned us back, especially their overseas professional Will Smith. His pace and accuracy bagged him two wickets and accounted for loose strokes to lesser bowlers at the other end. It required a 20 run last wicket partnership between Jiva and Gaurav Bansal to take the Cavs to a barely acceptable 168 off their 40 overs.
We thought we had a fair chance of defending our score, depending on whether we could get the pro out. We could not as it happened, but this was not our first problem, for a while it looked like we could not get anyone out. The openers put on 91 in 12 overs of mayhem which seemed to be imported straight from the bat of Callum Macleod. Luke Robertson played a sublime knock, with some of the sweetest timing you could wish to see, even if it was against you. It appeared we would lose by 10 wickets with about 20 overs left and then Manoj happened. He bowled with more fire than previously seen this season and backed this up with cunning. Two perfect slower balls removed both openers (Roberston for 77 out of 91!) and then he tore into the rest of the batters in a blitzkrieg. He took a remarkable 5 wickets in just 3 overs as the oppo collapsed to 96 for 6. Morgs at the other took the other wicket as the Cavs ran riot and Chertsey hit the panic stations button. The game had swung from Cav humiliation to Cavs in command.
The Chertsey colts held up the rampaging Manoj, scoring very few runs, but crucially using up his remaining overs. His 5 for 20 was his best Cav bowling figures and performance, what a playa! The spin twins of Jiva and Kyle Haughton then took over to try and tweak out the tail. But the pro W. Smith was hiding at 9 and he duly put the pressure back on the bowlers by bashing anything loose to boundary. The Chertsey skipper walked out as last man with 16 runs required and the Cavs were in the awkward position of trying to defend the boundaries to the pro and squeeze the new batter, whilst forgetting to actually attack him and get him out. Ah well, it was a great game, with Chertsey providing a significant crowd to watch and cheer them home.

The Cavs nearly pulled what would have been a stunning turn around victory.