.
In defiance of earlier weather reports, the day was bright, with
fluffy white clouds scudding across the sky and a bracing wind tousling
the trees on the boundary. Black Rose travelled to Winchmore Hill
to play the Horizontals. Some members of the home team had faced
Black Rose before, and recalled their big-hitting skipper Andre,
known for striking sixes deep into Highgate Woods, where his team
plays its own home fixtures. They were to find that the passing
years had not dimmed this excellent player’s appetite for
the aerial ball. Not only that, but the batting unit he brought
to the Paulin Ground proved to have been cast very much from the
same mould.
Having lost the toss and been asked to bowl, the Horizontals had
hopes that the unusually boisterous bounce on the rapidly drying
pitch would cause the team batting first considerable problems.
The two openers did indeed fall for relatively low scores of 14
a piece, one bowled by Craig, the Horizontal’s skipper, and
the other caught by Amit off the excellent spin bowling of Riaz.
Andre’s appearance at number 3 however soon put paid to the
Horizontal’s optimism. Perhaps the most memorable strike from
his repertoire of airborne attacking shots was a massive six that
disappeared far into the nets behind the boundary, necessitating
an early drinks break while someone went to get the keys to retrieve
the ball. Andre was out for 35, caught off Craig’s bowling
by Shiaz, the Horizontals’ wicket-keeper, who ran half-way
up the pitch to pouch a skied ball. There was little relief for
the Horizontals however, since the batsmen who followed all adopted
a similarly aggressive approach. An excellent innings of 67 not
out by the number 5 bat Kadir, was augmented by a sequence of belligerent
cameos that saw the ball disappearing to all corners of the ground.
Black Rose made a total of 209 for 7 off their allotted 35 overs.
Dave, Matt and Amit all bowled with plenty of heart, but only Riaz
(7 overs, 3 maidens, 1 wicket for 18 runs) was able to impose any
lasting control, while Craig was the only bowler to bag a brace
of wickets. A definite highlight of the fielding performance was
a catch off Matt’s bowling taken by Barry, who gambolled in
from the boundary to secure the ball, just as it seemed certain
to plummet to the ground. This well-struck ball was held with a
degree of nonchalance that would be the envy of many a cricketer.
After tea the Horizontals began their reply, only to find their
opponents as adept in the field as they were with the bat. The Black
Rose spinners gave very little away, their quicker bowlers were
just as parsimonious and accurate, while their catching and ground
fielding allowed the Horizontals no breathing room at all. The batsmen
all fought hard, Amit making 31, Riaz 27 and Mike not out for 39,
but the required run-rate rose inexorably and it was soon apparent
that a win for the Horizontals was extremely unlikely. There was
no humiliating collapse, however. At one point, a passing shower
held out the possibility that the weather might come to the Horizontal’s
rescue, but when a quick resumption of the match saw the last of
the 35 overs played out with the home team still languishing some
60 runs short of their target, no one could argue with the fairness
of the result.
