Brijesh stars with ton as Woldingham wilt

The Cavaliers thrashed a weak Woldingham side in a game that was sadly never a contest. Fortunately, we won the toss and of course opted to bat. Woldingham had a horror start with their keeper unable to stop, let alone catch a single ball. The openers (Brijesh Patel and Joel Miller) merely had to leave the ball to keep the score ticking over in byes. It was a shock then when the skipper chased a wide one and was miraculously snaffled by the wickie. (I hate cricket). I am not sure what happed after that for a while because I was sulking in the dressing room for quite a long time.

When I had kicked enough imaginary cats, I came out to see Brijesh and Supathi Panchal had taken the score on to close to 100. They had a very slow pitch and very slow bowlers to deal with and they had done a good job of not falling asleep, and actually kicking the score on. Their partnership of 112 ended when Sups missed a double bouncer (its not a no ball if it bounces twice after the popping crease) (its still rubbish though) and was bowled for 37. Brijesh then accelerated his scoring, conscious that others wanted to bat, and that his skipper has a history of declaring on batsmen.

Brijesh has put a lot of work into his batting and this showed, as he scored all around the ground and kept his shape and composure remarkably well. Some of his touch strokeplay was delightful, especially considering the pace of the pitch. He scored his first 50 off 60 balls, but then demolished the bowling to score his next 50 off just 30. When he reached his first Reigate Priory century, the skipper declared, surprising everyone, including himself.

The early declaration left us plenty of time to bowl out a Woldingham side who were never going to do anything but defend. They did this pretty well actually, holding off a rampaging Mike Murray (tall and fast) and only losing 4 wickets before the last 20 overs started. However, the Cavs bowlers were always in charge and Manish Chauhan (7 overs, 2 wickets for 4 runs) and Sumair Qasim (3 for 9 bowling legspin) helped us to bowl them out for 63 with over 10 over spare. Hopefully the next game will be more even.