Played

Report

by Adriano de'Lightly IV

With the South London trains playing merry hell with our batting order, we sent Paul and Suresh out to face some fairly accurate bowling from some fairly hungover Villagers. Despite losing a couple of early wickets, as well as some comedy running between the wickets, we rallied well and some solid batting from Roger and Ian, a swahbuckling 41 from Sav and some big late innings boundaries from Muz gave us a total of 157 all out from our allotted 30 overs.

However, it was becoming clear that The Villagers had played once or twice before, and they were soon ahead of the rate before Siva struck twice with quick straight deliveries demolishing both their openers' stumps. The skipper was tidy at first and had a *very* decent LBW shout inexplicably turned down before their #3 set about carting him into Lordship Lane a number of times, much to his chagrin :)

However, the wickets kept coming with Muz and Paul both adding to the tally, but so did the boundaries and even with our mystery wild card Suresh grabbing a scalp with his second ball, the chase was always on and the Villagers reached their target of 158 for the loss of 6 wickets with overs to spare.

Still, the earlier start meant more time in the pub afterwards and it was nice to see some new faces in the GRACC colours; hopefully, we will have some decent additions to the squad for the 2011 season!

Result

GRACC: 157 all out (29.4 overs)

Villagers CC: 158-6 (21.0 overs)

Villagers won by 4 wickets

Man Of The Match: Sav's excellent knock of 41 after a hectic morning on trains all over South London takes the award this week

Champagne moments:Muz hit a lovely straight six, Suresh also took a very good running catch from a massive skied on-drive

Comedy moment: The inevitable slapstick run-out; take a bow, Suresh and Siva :)