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By Nick Tomlinson
I lost the toss and Fenham decided to bat on a slick surface hoping to take advantage of the wet outfield. They raced along to 50 in 5 overs until helpfully losing the newish ball that had been rocketing to the fence, and first ball after being replaced with 150 overs old cushion we took the big wicket of Mukhtar (who had previously survived a chance to Greg that came down with snow on it). The run rate went steadily downwards after that as good spells from Guy, Chandra , Fiaz and Eshan all included wickets. Notable mentions to a fine catch from Si standing up to Guy and a sharp run out from Guy, neither of which would have been given out had we not been playing with umpires. They only scored around 10 runs off the last three overs to end on 117-7 which we were well happy with after the flier they had got off to.
I started off decided to slog as I couldn’t run due to a knee injury and lost my off stump aiming an ambitious carve over cover with the score around 15, Fiaz joined Peter and batted superbly despite his reluctance to actually run between the wickets. Peter departed with us needing around 60 off 5 overs and Greg and Fiaz upped the scoring rate significantly. We looked home and dry needing only 13 off two overs, however some good bowling and suicidal running left us needed 5 off two balls with Si and Muddy at the crease. Simon hit a lovely shot straight to the man on the point boundary and the game looked lost. What followed was one of the most bizarre pieces of cricket any of us had ever witnessed – Mudasser scunts a drive into the ground which trickles to mid on. It should be game over but the fielder needlessly throws the ball in hard on the half-volley to the bowler who fumbles. Si comes back for the second and the bowler then fires another awful throw past the keeper to fine leg and Muddy comes back for third overthrow. Mudasser then starts celebrating, not realising that he probably could have come back for the 4th given how far the throw had gone! Game tied.
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