Wargrave Ones snatch victory from the jaws of defeat…twice

Article:
Thanks to the heavy incessant rain on Friday night, many pitches and grounds were flooded and several games called off and I was dreading that call on Saturday morning for the game to be called off due to a wet pitch. I did get a call, however for M4 traffic update from the Skipper Mandip Sohi which settled my nerves a bit regarding the possibility of a game.

We were greeted by a very friendly bunch of Hayes Club players and after a few non-existent drills the captains congregated in the middle with the Umpires for the toss.

Wargrave won the toss and decided to bat first, which looked like an absolute minefield given the overnight rain, covers on the pitch all morning and cloudy skies with very strong wind. It was a bold move by the Skipper as we had to get 25 points to stay up in Division 2 and it was a risk we had to take given the position we were in the table.

Wargrave Batting:
Imran Malik and Luke Taylor started off in style with Luke punishing their opening bowler for 6 consecutive boundaries in his first 16 balls. The pitch was extremely hard to bat on with the tennis ball bounce and both openers were trying very hard not to lose their wicket. Hayes were bowling good lengths and they got a lot out of the wicket as the batsmen were constantly challenged with short balls whizzing past their helmets at various occasions.

When Imran Malik got out LBW and Luke got out (on an aggressive 28) top edging a short delivery to first slip, Euan Woods and Osman Khan kept the scoreboard ticking. Euan unfortunately got out when a ball from good length hit his gloves onto the stumps as he was leaving the ball. Sunil Kumar joined Osman in the middle and kept taking singles and odd boundaries apart from getting peppered with balls hitting our chest and shoulders as the bounce on the wicket was a little too much to handle some times.

Dan Davies was the next to join Sunil in the middle after Osman got out LBW but got out to a similar fashion like Euan which told a lot about the bowler friendly conditions at Hayes. Alex was in the middle now and riding on a good start he gave Wargrave last week against Burnham he played an anchor innings and took quite a few balls on his chest and gloves but ensure he didn’t lost his wicket.

Sunil got caught in the covers when his defensive push to an oddly raising delivery at good length was caught at mid-off and the Wargrave scorecard then read 57-6. Hayes were very confident at that point but Alex Woods and Huw Thomas gave some stability in the middle with Huw particularly playing some aggressive shots and took the attack to the opposition. When Alex and Huw got out for 19 and 20 respectively the scorecard looked a little respectable at 97-8.

Then comes Wargrave’s Skipper Mandip Sohi and flips the entire game on its head by playing a captains innings. He started scoring 6s at an alarming rate and suddenly with Archie Withers giving him good company at the other end Wargrave were inching towards a competitive total. Mandip got out on 56 of 34 balls with Archie giving good support with his 11 and that partnership of 61 was the turning point of the game. The final partnership was between Archie Withers and Jordan Mortimer who had come up from the 3rds to play for us. One of the salient features of Wargrave is how we take care of our youngsters and you could tell both Jordan and Archie played comfortably in the middle. Jordan remained not out till the end after blocking out some good deliveries and he showed his maturity in his short stint in the middle. When Archie got out, Wargrave ended up on 160 all out which given the conditions was a good score to defend. Michael Green ended up with the best figures of 16.2 overs, 8 maidens and 6 wickets for 48 runs.

Wargrave Bowling:
Just after we finished our teas, the sun was breaking through the clouds and all that venom and zip in the pitch disappeared. Euan Woods and Alex Woods took the new ball and started putting pressure from ball one. Euan got the first breakthrough in his second over and Wargrave ones knew that they needed wickets at regular intervals given the small target they were defending.

Alex bowled really well and was rewarded for his line, length and hostility he could muster from the now easy to bat pitch with 3 wickets. The best ball of his spell was when he clean bowled the batsman with a ball that swung in and then seamed to take the middle stump off the ground.

Wargrave was pumped up and we knew that we had to take wickets quickly before Hayes Batsmen could settle. Sunil took a wicket when Hayes skipper hit one straight to Luke at gully who took a good catch. Little did Luke know that it was his first of many that day.

Huw Thomas then joined the attack and with Mandip at another end it was the spin twins in action and runs started to dry up. When Michael Green came to bat after his good spell earlier in the day, he started smashing the ball all around the park. Mandip then did the inspired bowling change of getting Archie at one end and was rewarded straight away with 2 crucial wickets for Wargrave. When Mandip got Michael out for 34, Wargrave looked on course to win the game with the final push.

Luke had by then taken 5 outstanding catches (a record of sorts) at gully and second slip and that really pumped up the entire team.

On the fielding front it was good to see the youngsters again showing the bright future of the Club as they threw themselves on the field especially Jordan fielding at deep square leg which was the favourite for every Hayes Batsman on Saturday.

Caleb Kent on the other end was playing an anchor innings but he kept losing partners regularly.
However when Anaib Mehmood joined him he had other ideas and Anaib started getting boundaries regularly and suddenly Wargrave were staring at the scoreboard which read 8 runs to win with 1 wicket remaining and 10 overs to go.

Mandip then took the ball from the other end and got the final wicket when Euan Woods brilliantly stumped Caleb Kent on 16 and Wargrave Ones won the game by 7 runs much to the joy of the sparse but vocal Wargrave support from their player’s Mums especially Maggie and Gretta who supported us all the way until the end. Thank you ladies.

Wargrave Win:
It was an amazing feat given that we pulled ourselves together from 57-6 to then score 160 and then win by 7 runs on a track that got favourable for the batsman as the day progressed. Wragrave Ones cherished the win by staying at the Club and shared a few drinks with the opposition and the umpires who also enjoyed the game.

Wargrave clearly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat twice and now are in the right frame of mind to play matches against the top half of the League table over the next few weeks and it will be a good contest for sure… Bring it on TVL Div 2 !

Match Report by Sunil Kumar