Concorde v Jinnah CC

Match Report

Sundays game saw the return of two unexpected faces in the form of Nikhil Kadyan, who was supposed to have removed himself to Scotland, and Alex Cudworth who, through work and relocation, has had very little time to play for the club in recent years. Although this was something of a one off for both players, they were both most welcome additions to the side and both had a significant impact upon the game.

On winning the toss, Jerry Wright reverted to type after last week and invited Jinnah CC to bat. This was motivated in part by knowing nothing about the opposition and also with one eye to the weather forecast which indicated that interruptions for rain were likely in the early part of the afternoon.

It was clear that Jinnah were not used to declaration cricket and their batting rather betrayed this as they attacked from the start against Matt Hallam and Simon Duke. This is not generally wise and Matt claimed a swift LBW victim and then followed up by hitting the top of off stump with the score around 20. After a couple of overs to get his range, Dukie weighed in by inducing a top edge to point where Alex made the catch look routine and he then hit the top of off stump to reduce Jinnah to 40 -4.

A bit of a stand was mounted and some meaty blows struck but the stand was brought to an abrupt end by a brilliant piece of fielding from Alex who swooped on a ball pushed on the off side for a single and threw down the stumps to run out what looked like the best of the opposition players. The Jinnah batsmen continued in aggressive style especially against Jacob who was a little short in length but he was unlucky not to have a slip catch taken by the skipper before he too struck twice thanks to a catch behind by Nick Freeman and a routine catch from James Aston at midwicket. Ian joined the party by inducing a catch which was smartly taken by Alex and the Jinnah innings subsided to 131 thanks to another smart run out by, and the Captains memory is rather hazy here, I think, Richard Ingham.

Since Nikhil had not really had any bowling, he was sent out to open with James and progress was slow against some bowling which looked to be of a higher standard than the majority of the batting. When James was yorked for a single, Alex went out to join Nikhil with the final words of his Captain ringing in his ears. “There’s no rush. Take your time” and predictably his second ball was deposited back over the batsman’s head for 6. Nikhil and Alex now took the match by the scruff of the neck with Alex being particularly aggressive both down the ground and with some savage pulls and Nikhil executing some lovely square cuts, Runs flowed such that they had comfortably taken the score past 100 when Alex was well held at mid off by a fielder who looked just as surprised as everyone else on the field when he clung on.

Richard Ingham looked quite at ease, hitting a nice shot off his legs for 4 but in going for a repeat, hardly had the words “great shot” passed the lips of the spectators when it was smartly caught at short square leg. Joined By Nick Freeman who drove his first ball through extra cover for 4, Nikhil passed 50 and the Jiinnah score was comfortably passed with the loss of only 3 wickets.

The unbeaten Concorde machine rolls on for another week!