11/05/24
FAMILIAR FAILINGS
Early season optimism evaporates as Isleham put Thirds to the sword
Isleham (20pts) 241-3 beat Camden (5pts) 184 by 57 runs
Captain Redfern lost the toss at Isleham and didn’t look too peeved at being invited to field first. After all, his side had chased down 118 to win at Bluntisham in the previous week’s curtain raiser. And when Prathyush’s juggling catch reduced the hosts to 25-2 in the tenth over, it looked like a similar total might be on the cards here. If Farid (2-27) was feeling any ill-effects from being knocked off his bike en route to a lift to the game, it didn’t show. The Afghan pacer had struck in his first over – bowling the opener off the inside edge – and with Kelsall hustling through his overs in customary fashion, it looked a good toss to lose. But that was as good as it got, really, although Rizwan – after last week’s match-winning 5-18 – bowled eight tidy overs for 29, and the Thirds would have been relatively happy with 77-2 at drinks. Baker had recorded figures of 5-1-5-2 in the previous week’s win, including the prized wicket of Bluntisham’s number three. Here, Isleham’s number four, who would go on to score an increasingly violent unbeaten 125, had taken one look at the wildlife supremo and decided he could bat left-handed. Krishna fared no better, the spin twins conceding a combined 88 from ten overs. At 139-2 after thirty overs, Isleham were well placed to kick on.
If there is a bowling or fielding equivalent to the batting collapse, what followed was surely it. 102 from the final ten overs. To avoid naming and shaming, it’s perhaps better to say there were countless dropped catches. Redders (1-41) made the mistake of taking a wicket, ushering in Isleham’s number five to plunder 42 from eighteen balls. The final over of the innings – bowled by Kelsall (0-49) – was looted for 22. All of which meant that Isleham had posted 241-3. Your correspondent had missed the opening-day win, so this performance felt like a depressingly familiar continuation of last season. On the day Jimmy Anderson confirmed he would be retiring after the first Test of the summer, there might have been some Camden old boys who wished they had done the same. Still, at least there was the cheering sight of a proper cricket tea.
The reply began with Sutton (9) playing a note-perfect homage to Redders. Having missed the previous three days at work due to man-flu, the bearded opener had the ready-made excuse. Soon enough, he had the high boundary percentage and the airy drive straight to a fielder. Perhaps repaying the tribute, Redders ran a two from his first ball. At the other end, Rob Coe played more typically, taking the visitors to 41-1 after ten overs. It was a shame, then, that Coe – back at Camden on his second tour of the cricket clubs of Cambridge – needlessly ran himself out for 20. Redders responded with four boundaries in as many balls, but then missed an in-ducker to fall for 29. Any remote hopes of a win lay on the shoulders of Prathyush, whose unbeaten 57 a week earlier had seen the Thirds home. That form continued, but there was little support at the other end. Robinson endured an eleven-ball duck, Krishna (8) was the victim of a fine low catch, and Harrison (7) was caught off the leading edge. Farid hit three fours and a towering six over square leg – briefly threatening to make a game of it, before being bowled for 22. Kelsall (7) fell to a stunning full-length diving catch, Rizwan was bowled for a duck, and the penultimate ball of the innings saw Baker (2) bowled. That left Prathyush not out on 54 and the Thirds all out for 184 – a total they ought to have been chasing, had the wheels not come off earlier.
Man of the Match: Prathyush Roy