Hawridge & Cholesbury

Sun  3 July                        Hawridge and Cholesbury                Won by 20 runs

    We    246/7 in 40 overs     (Gore 82, Shanker 45, Ghosh 45, Mantha 33,
                                                T.Khan 21, Holdsworth 3/52)
    They 226/7 in 40 overs     (Holdsworth 45, Knight 40, Cath 29, Amar 2/23,
                                                Raja 2/43, G.Thomas 2/54)

A new late fixture to fill a blank weekend took KCC for the first time to the pretty village ground at Cholesbury on the Bucks/Herts border.  Immediately on arrival, a mad rush of private consultations with skipper Rohan followed as, all of a sudden, everyone fancied a bat, no doubt encouraged by the 40 yard boundary at one end. Ravi Mantha (33), fresh off a flight from somewhere, took off with a flurry of boundaries, before jet lag caught up with him.  Amit (45) and Rohan steadied the ship and took KCC to 89 in the 18th, before Amit fell victim to that nemesis of every Sunday cricketer, flighted dibbly-dobblies.  In strode San who unleashed a vintage performance smashing 82 delightful runs off only 70 balls, including three sixes!  Rohan (45) and San put on a run-a-ball 82, before various lower order efforts took KCC to a respectable 246/7 in their 40 overs.

After an extended tea interval, when we watched Nadal and Djokovich beat each other to a pulp down in SW19, KCC took to the field and immediately strangled the Hawridge openers, thanks to excellent spells from Akhi, Jon Pickles and Neeraj.  At 112/3 after 25 overs, Hawridge were hoping for a heroic performance or two, which arrived soon after in the unlikely forms of KCC’s Gabriel and Ali.  Several wides, long hops. no balls, full tosses, byes, dropped catches and hit-me’s later, it was game on and the home side threatened to steal an unlikely win.  Brows were furrowed.  Heads were being scratched.  Teapots everywhere.  Raucous home support.  Pitch intruders (harmless ramblers really).  Both Ali and Gabriel picked up two each to balance out their bowling ledgers … somewhat.  In the end, Hawridge fell only 20 short of the target, thanks to a couple of tight overs from Sunil.

 Johnnie Walkers were presented, a barbeque followed, watered down by Cobras to soothe the nerves before the journey home.