Broughton Gifford Vs Venturers, Sunday July 31st

Broughton Gifford 306-9 dec, Venturers 206

This didn’t go well. We started by winning the toss and fielding, which was not a good plan, and it went downhill from there. Not at once. Krish bowled well to start with, and removed an opener with a slower ball. Varun at the other end was more expensive but in the end he was the only bowler who was consistently not bad over a prolonged period. Fewer than thirty runs came in the first eight overs: they doubled that in the next three and doubled it again in the following seven. The rot started with Krish’s fifth over, but it was Yash and Gregory who really blew it. Yash seemed not to know what he was doing, and sometimes switched between spin and pace in mid-over without altering the field, or even necessarily notifying the wicket-keeper. Gregory did know what he was doing, but didn’t do it, except for his second ball which found the edge and resulted in a simple catch. Bhargab clanged it, and Gregory was not only unable to repeat the trick but bowled a succession of very hittable balls, which were very hit. Most overs cost about a dozen. One cost zero, when Gregory briefly got things right. Yash never did get things right. Miles was tried instead, which was an improvement for a bit, and then Bruce, who was at least no worse than anybody else, but what changed the momentum a bit was the agreement we had made of retirement at 100. Such was the chaos that this rule was needed in the twenty-second over, and again in the twenty-fifth. A sharp return catch by Bruce, probably the best moment we had in the field, gave an illusion of control but it didn’t last. Krish returned and got a couple more wickets, but expensively: so did Gregory. Varun at least continued where he had left off. Rob, who clearly ought to have bowled earlier, also got two wickets, inexpensively in his case, and Varun brought about a run-out by hitting the stumps direct from the deep field. Even this success was double-edged: it allowed one of the centurions to unretire. Gregory dismissed him immediately, but leaked runs to his partner and in any case only unretired the other centurion. The latter had just started to dismantle Rob’s bowling as well when Broughton Gifford decided that they wanted their tea, and declared.

We ought to have had a chance. On a true pitch with small boundaries, Bhargab was likely to be unstoppable, and we had plenty of other batting. Miles played a sensible supporting role until he edged to slip. He was annoyed with himself but it turned out to be the least dotty way to get out that any of us found. Yash clubbed his first ball to mid-on. Krish pulled his second weakly to mid-wicket. Varun stuck around for a bit before edging to the wicket-keeper, and Charlie did exactly the same thing. The accurate but not deeply threatening opening bowler had taken five wickets in twenty-six balls, with one scoring shot, a boundary by Charlie. Bhargab watched with growing astonishment. Simon, though, did much better, and if it had not been for the retire-at-100 rule he and Bhargab might have constituted a threat (but Broughton Gifford might also have made even more runs if they hadn’t also been subject to that rule). Bhargab was forcibly retired with the score somewhere aroung 140 and Simon was left trying to score all the runs himself. He did get a fair way. Rob played a couple of nice shots of his own, for little reward, and then picked out mid-on. Our best chance, remote thought it was, was for Duncan, Gregory and Bruce to get out and Bhargab and Simon to get the other hundred runs, quickly. This plan failed when Simon miscued, and Duncan neither got out nor, apart from a single leg glance, got on with it. Bruce also miscued. Gregory connected a couple of times, for singles only, and then got stumped trying to do it again. Duncan was not able to give Bhargab the strike, but he did keep his end up: however, very soon Bhargab himself drove a catch to point and that was that.