Camden I v Madingley (home)

21/0625

THIRDS MAKE HEAVY WORK OF MADINGLEY

Clarke and Karan seal one-wicket win

Madingley II (6pts) 107 lost to Camden (20pts) 108-9 by 1 wicket

The longest day of the year. One of the hottest, too. A bat first kind of a day, but the Thirds aren’t a bat first kind of team. A potentially tricky decision was taken out of Captain Redfern’s hands, as the visitors – Madingley II – elected to bat first on winning the toss. It looked a sound choice when the opener took a liking to Mukesh (0-32). But, with 57 on the board with one ball of the eleventh over to bowl, things were to take a dramatic turn. That one ball saw Farid make the breakthrough with an LBW, and was followed by six maidens in a row. And three more wickets – Krishna taking a smart low catch off Subbu (8-5-11-1), and Farid (8-3-20-3) twice rearranging the furniture. The shackles were broken with a leg bye, but Madingley were soon in further trouble – losing three wickets with the score on 62, narrowly avoiding a Karan hat-trick. ‘Deadly’ Derekar (3-22) didn’t have long to wait for a third wicket, with Clarke taking a sharp chance. In eleven overs, the Thirds had taken 7-10. Remarkable, as David Coleman would have said. Another Subbu run out ended a stubborn eighth-wicket stand of 37, before Redders (1-20) and Ketul (1-0) polished things off.

108 to win. As had been the case at Steeple Morden, a tea-time shower spiced up the pitch. Too spicy for the top three, it turned out, as Redders (1), Ketul (0), and Krishna (8) were all bowled with the score on 14. Prathyush (7) and Robinson (2) followed, leaving the Thirds in all kinds of trouble at 29-5. Enter Subbu. With a twirl of the moustache and a swish of the bat, the Thirds were back in the match. With 44 required, Irtaza (16) was bowled. Enter Farid. The Finshers, together again. But both fell – Subbu (28), Farid (10) – with 23 still needed. Mukesh (4) was stumped, leaving the task of scoring 15 to Clarke and Karan. Quite how a batting line-up strong enough to have Karan batting at eleven had left it to the last wicket was a mystery. In the end, the Thirds were grateful for such batting depth. The pair were content to get ‘em in singles until Karan (5*) found the boundary to bring the scores level. It was over to Clarke (7*) to seal victory. Never in doubt.

Man of the Match: Chris Clarke