So close and yet to far....

Wargrave Ones played Burnham 2s at The Rec after their epic win against Henley last weekend and the match against Burnham was similar in many ways to 4th day of the second Ashes test except that fact that Wargrave Ones fought until the last wicket but feel short by a small(ish) margin considering the target and bowling attack we had to face esp. with the new ball spell from their Overseas Pro, Waqar Ahmed.

The unfortunate run out of Euan (Stoksey) Woods and Waqar (Mich) Johnson bouncing off batsmen were some of the common points with 4th day of the Second Ashes Test but Wargrave Ones almost chased down 298 against a good Burnham bowling attack.

The day started off in a serene way with the beautiful Wargrave pitch (aka batting paradise) gleaming in sunshine (thanks to Martin), Wargrave flag flapping in the gentle summer breeze, birds chirping away and a few kids in the Play area nearby.

Players gathered at the Rec gradually but Huw (I am never late for a lame reason) Thomas was late (again) due to the heavy traffic on the M4 to the Rec, quite understandably.

Arslan joined us for this game and with the cones and stumps in place for our fielding drills, thanks to Alex (Butter Fingers) Woods.

When Mandip lost the toss and told us that we were put into the field, we went into the Changing rooms for our usual pep talk and slapping sun cream (yes even myself, Sunil (Way better than Tino Best) Kumar had to educate a few that skin cancer isn't kind to anyone including myself).

Wargrave Bowling
Mandip (Achilles are overrated) Sohi and Arslan kicked off our bowling session in good style by ensuring Burnham didn't get off to a flying start. Alex was excellent behind the stumps esp by chirping away at the Batsmen and Freddie (Quads are overrated) Lanch giving us great support in the field by pepping us up throughout the day (well almost!)

Luke (Safe as Houses – being extended into a Mansion) Taylor was exceptional in the gully region and stopped a few definite boundaries.

Euan and Huw then took over the bowling attack with spin at both ends. Euan got the first breakthrough of the day by getting the threatening A.Javed caught and bowled. Huw was very impressive in his return to the Ones and the bowling attack kept changing to get that breakthrough we so desperately needed.

All bowlers including Neal, Dan, Alex kept toiling in the sun and the Wargrave wicket was showing its batsman friendliness but I knew that we can chase down any score given our long batting (bowling, keeping, fielding) line up. Freddie thought it would be better to get “injured” rather than staying out in the sun and was substituted by one of our Club members who was just casually walking along the ground.

With the score now 200+ and 12 more overs to go, I was brought into the attack (thanks Mandip) and was made to bowl at the batsman who was seeing the cricket ball like a football. Little did he know that a very slow, off side (yes Neal, off-side) delivery that he tried to whack over Martin’s house safely landed in Luke’s hands who took the catch with supreme confidence shouting “I have got this guys” as he took a stunning catch.

I almost had my second wicket, thanks to Alex with supreme confidence shouting “ah *&(£& guys” as he couldn’t catch a tough one (easy one for his standards) in long on and palmed it over the fence too.

Burnham ended up with 297/4 after 51 overs and I still believed we had the fire power in us to chase that.

Teas:
Normally I don’t have more than a few lines for Teas but Imran’s text earlier on Saturday saying “Sunny, I haven’t been allowed to touch the samosas Mum has been cooking since 5.30 a.m.” raised my hopes really high and boy was I pleased in the end. So pleased that I ended up having Paracetamol from Michelle as I ended up eating a few more samosas than my stomach could handle. The selection in the Teas from Maggie were more than the words in this match report and all the Burnham players didn’t hide their joy as the kept saying how great the tea was and they now understood the real reason why I left Burnham. Thanks again for the tea Maggie.

Wargrave Chase:
In typical fashion, Alex and Imran opened our innings and they got us off to a flier. Alex was hooking and pulling Waqar Ahmed once he realised that there is no point defending (not sure such a word exists in his batting dictionary anyway). At the other end Imran was showing his pure class and why he is so highly regarded in the team as a top batsman with Euan. Imran looked supremely comfortable at the crease but got caught on a well-deserved 58 trying to increase the run rate.

We were chasing at good pace and with Euan and Dan in the middle there was a steady flow of boundaries. Euan then got out to an unfortunate run out taking a quick single which got Luke into the middle. Dan perished sweeping and got caught at mid-wicket and with Arslan and Luke now in the middle we were still going strong towards our stiff but achievable target.

Neal (I don’t like pace bowlers) Robinson was playing well with Luke but once Luke got out at the bowler’s end as Neal’s straight drive (accidental as Neal mentioned in his own words) hit the bowlers’ fingers only to be run out backing up, the target looked a little shaky with just a few more wickets left.

I was coming into the game with an average of infinity and my sole target then was to ensure to maintain that (to get up the batting order somehow for the following weeks) and get us over the line. Neal then got a superb ball from Waqar to be caught by the keeper and was out for 35.

Wargrave Ones were braving the hostility of the bouncers and toe crushers from Waqar but the final 3 wickets fell in front of my own eyes in one over and I was left stranded at 4 not out at the other end, still maintaining my average of infinity.

Final thoughts:
Just like the final huddle after the game at Henley we gathered in the middle and spoke about the things we could improve on. It was great to see that the team was hurt but not broken and we openly shared on things we need to improve on. Fielding was one the key areas of improvement (given a few dropped chances) but it was great to see all charged up for the next game against Hays next weekend.

So in essence, we did play better than the England Team on the 4th day of the second Ashes test as we didn’t give the game away and surrendered meekly but fought all the way till the end.

Moving onto next weekend I think the team is looking forward to put this game behind and take the lessons learnt into the next one and I am sure we will bounce back and win the next few games.

For now, I am loving my excellent batting average and I hope it gives others a fair idea on who to select next year for their Fantasy Team…

Match Report by Sunil Kumar