Thilo's 90 leads Cavs to victory

Jiva De Lambert’s Stella Maris Old Boys Association were the visitors to Park Lane for their annual fixture against the Cavaliers. The Old Boys all hail from the same School in Sri Lanka and they come together for half a dozen or so fixtures in a season and this always means their get-togethers have a social element to add to the cricket.

Manoj won the toss and put the Old Boys into bat in this 35 over a side match.

Sumair Qasim and Andy Lewis opened the bowling and after a wayward 1st over from Andy it was Andy who claimed the 1st wicket with the score on 19 when he had the opener Amal (3) caught behind by Michael Ramsden; the missed stumping the ball before was quickly forgiven.
Some big hitting followed on a fast outfield where the ball often won the race to the boundary and Old Boys swiftly moved onto 54 after 8 overs when U15 Arnav Patnaik replaced Sumair Qasim and put the brakes on with just a single from his first over and 2 from his second over.

Ollie Thilo came on to replace Andy Lewis and fresh from his 1st team appearance the previous day Ollie was quickly into the action in his first over getting Dian (34) caught at extra cover by Matt Loft with the Old Boys now on 74-2 in the 12th over.

The Cavs had to wait to the 17th over with the score on 101 before the 3rd wicket fell when Arnav claimed his 1st wicket getting Klain out for 41.
Manoj was now bowling in tandem with Tristan Cossey and it was Tristan who made the next breakthrough in the 19th over with the score on 109 getting Kevin Antony out for 20 to see the Old Boys 4 down. It was Tristan who got the next wicket in the 27th over to get Damma out for 13 and the Old Boys were now 141 for 5.

Manoj followed up next over with his 1st wicket getting Eransa bowled for 32 to set the Old Boys set back at 152-6. More success for Tristan Cossey in the 29th over getting Lakshan out for 1 and 153-7 was soon 156-8 in the 30th over when returning Arnav Patnaik got his 2nd wicket getting Frank out for 11.

The Old Boys weren’t done yet with their Captain Rukshan (ending not out on 27) pushing the score on to 186 in the penultimate over before Manoj halted their progress getting 2 more wickets with the Old Boys finished their innings on 203 all out with one ball of their 35 overs remaining.

The wickets were shared around and the 2 youngsters played their part with contributions of 3-29 off 5 from Tristan and 2-32 off 6.5 for Arnav.
The Cavaliers innings started cautiously with openers Brijesh Bharatiya and Nat Kenyon and in the 3rd over Nat Kenyon was bowled by Kevin Antony without scoring with the score at 6 for 1.

Next to go was fellow opener Brijesh Bharatiya and after 6 overs the Cavs were 22 for 2.

Ollie Thilo joined Matt Loft and they settled in before they pressed the accelerator and, with plenty of boundaries from both Ollie and Lofty, 22 for 2 after 6 overs became 167 for 2 after 26 overs and the Cavs were well on their way to the target.

Plenty of bowling changes (9 bowlers were tried, including Jiwa teasing his fellow Cavaliers with his spinners) but the Old Boys had to wait until the 27th over before they halted the Cavs progress when returning opening bowler Damma had Ollie Thilo lbw for an excellent 90 and a fine 3rd wicket stand of 145 was broken.

Meanwhile Lofty reached an excellent 50 and with 8 overs remaining 37 runs were still needed and rather unusually 7 of these came in one hit when after running 3 when the ball almost went to one boundary it was then thrown for 4 overthrows to the opposite boundary.

Olly Mayes (23no) then joined Lofty (56no) to calmly take the Cavs over the line with an over to spare.

An enjoyable game with both teams exceeding the 200 run mark. A game well managed by both Captains with all 11 of the Old Boys batting and 9 bowling and for the Cavs those that didn’t bat all bowled.

Although Reigate were nominally the hosts, the hosting role was more than ably taken on by our visitors who despite not being able to use the clubhouse still managed to provide an ample assortment of food for the mid match tea break and after match food for the players and spectators.