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| Photo: Friends of Hilly Fields |
Nomads captain Niz Sirisena, who usually has such luck in winning the toss had lost three in a row before this match but he was reasonably chipper going out to the middle with away captain Utkarsh. He returned just as chipper and informed the team with a smile that they were going out to bat. Dan Cambage and Gareth Thomas walked out to face opening bowlers Vickey and Daman who began by peppering the off side for a plethora of wides, giving the Nomads plenty of free runs. Scoring freely off the bat was another thing entirely however as despite short boundaries, longer than ideal grass had a distance sapping effect on the ball and accurate balls amongst the wide deliveries didn’t help either. Dan dug in at one end but Gareth continued his lean start to the season this time being unfortunate to be adjudged lbw off a ball hitting above the knee roll.
Batting for the first time at number three John Hankinson was up to the task, he knew already that runs had to be fought for on this wicket. Sun gave way to a haze which hovered over London for the rest of the day and the Nomads top order were looking at playing the long innings. Luckily for the Nomads, Vet John had more patience than patients this bank holiday and got singles and twos where they could be found and blocked the good balls out. Dan played well for 12 off 25 but fell to a catch off the bowling of Ankit. Captain Niz strode to the crease and got the biggest round of applause of the match after he survived his first ball, avoiding the second golden duck in a row and like Dan and John, had to dig in to score.
The match figures will tell you that Edwardia XI bowled an extra 4 overs worth of wides but not that the majority of the other balls were going on to hit the stumps which made getting into a batting groove difficult. No batsman bar Rob Logan who finished on 18 n.o. off 26 balls had a strike rate above 50 and you could have thought it was a test match as Niz scored 16 off 58 balls, Jake Sexton 1 off 9 and Will White 8 of 20. Despite that Niz and John put on a 50 run partnership and steadied the ship, so when Niz was caught by captain Utkarsh off of Prakesh (1-10), Rob Logan had time to get himself in and at the moment that is helping him get runs for the team. John kept the strike rotating and scored 7 fours across the sluggish outfield, top scoring with his club record of 40. He’d faced 85 balls and was eventually trapped on his crease by Shubham who bowled an excellent 4 over spell finishing with 2-8.
Another batsman who played his part only faced three balls but was responsible for 8 runs was Martyn Williams, occupying the Gilchrist spot at number 7. Bowler Ankit (3-11) turned up the heat in his second spell and had Jake bowled but Martyn played with intent only to see 4 byes slip by his bat face and 4 leg byes do the same. With a bit more time in the middle against pace, the emerging batsman would have seen them come off the bat and it won’t be long before Martyn, no stranger to a fight with a cricket ball, will triumph. Charlie McGinnes was out last ball of the innings trying to force a final boundary and the Nomads put 143 on the board for the loss of 8 wickets.
It was clear that Edwardia were going to go for the runs as quickly as possible from the off and the Nomads had to take early wickets to have a chance of winning the match. Tonker Robbie duly obliged Jake (2-40) as he was given out lbw coming across from leg stump and getting bat nowhere near the ball in the second over of Edwardia’s reply. Jake bowled with zip and venom but was a victim of his own success at times as balls clearly too good for the batsman ended up being edged for boundaries down to third man.
Will (2-21) did a great impersonation of Kate Bush, running up that hill as he so often does and removed two batsman with his left arm seamers. Niz in the slips reached wuthering heights as an outstretched hand clasped a catch of Will’s bowling and Niz was the most surprised that it was actually taken. He alongside Gareth continue to be the form fieldsman this season. Jamie Curme suffered a smashed fingernail stopping a ball at mid-off and injured it further failing to take a tough chance in the same position a few overs later and was struck off the bowling options for the team.
This opened the way for John Hankinson (4-23) to take the ball in the later overs as Utkarsh and Shubham were entrenching themselves in and were chipping off the runs. At the twenty over mark, Edwardia were 73-3 and halfway to getting to the target score. John bowled wicket-to-wicket firing balls down the corridor of uncertainty as if he owned it. After having a plum lbw decision turned down he persevered and had top scorer Shubham lbw for 25. John got them with good balls and he got them with bad balls, Jake catching a lofted shot from Akshul and Daman bowled of a perfect full ball for 13. In a seven over spell the veteran veterinarian pushed the Nomads close to an unlikely victory and he was ably supported by relentless lieutenants Russell Roberts (0-22) and Gareth (0-14). It was tense until the 36th over when some misfields allowed Monty Panesar lookalike Inder and Gun bowler Ankit to get the winning runs finishing on 11n.o. and 10n.o. respectively.
If there was a vote on who was man-of-the-match John would have been the standout candidate, highest run getter and wicket taker for either team and all from his first game this year. The pitch at Hilly Fields Oval is proving to be a very cruel mistress and the groundstaff and the Nomads batsman need to tame her very soon. But not too soon as the next match is away to the Old Wimbledonian Poets in Rayne’s Park.
Johnny Blonde is a former editor-in-chief of The Leopard and a relative of Nomads spin bowler Jamie Curme.
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