Match Report
After the crushing defeat at Catford Wanderers on the opening day of the season, Crusaders had two weeks to reflect and ready themselves for the visit to Woolwich Barracks, with the opposition provided by Charlatans.
Overnight rain and a cold grey morning, meant that pre-match conversations were dominated by how many layers of clothing would be required, rather than what tactical nous we would require to record our first win of the new campaign.
Chand’s mystery player, known only as ‘Hassan from the DLR’, failed to materialise for a second game, with Chand’s phone calls and texts seemingly ignored (Hassan obviously worked Chand out pretty quickly) and we were indebted to Goldie for railroading his younger brother Loepreet into playing, to bring us back up to a full compliment. Wajih called correctly and opted to bat.
Nita and Goldie provided a solid platform, taking advantage of any loose deliveries on offer, while the score was helped along with a few extras donated by the home side. When the score had reached 38, Goldie holed out at Mid On and a couple of balls later Nita feathered a catch behind, with no further addition to the score. Chand followed soon after, adjudged LBW by his close friend Sam Singh, who appeared to be leading the appeals, before jubilantly raising his finger. From a position of some strength we had quickly regressed to where a period of patient rebuilding was needed. The Rock, amidst some Charlatans heckling that claimed that ‘it doesn’t matter where you bowl it he wont hit it anywhere’, was the man required. With Wajih mixing caution with some hefty drives, John was happy to prove that Charlatans were quite correct in their analogy, but importantly he remained with the Skipper, pushing the score up to 71 before he was bowled for 3.
The lower order ‘wagged’, with a typically brief but explosive contribution from Sam and a valuable partnership between Wajih and Harpreet, that produced 43 runs in the closing 6 overs. At the close of our innings Wajih, on a pitch of variable pace and bounce remained unbeaten for a chanceless 85 and a target of 173 was set for our hosts.
In the absence of our normal Master of the Gloves, Spud stepped up to fill his ample void, whilst Wajih threw the ‘new’ ball to Chand and Sam. Any one with the vaguest cricketing knowledge would surmise that this was potentially a recipe for disaster. From the moment Chand slipped a yorker under the reaching bat of McMurray in the first over, Crusaders held and maintained the ascendancy. With Sam bowling a consistent line and length at the other end, without any fortune, despite several optimistic ‘whodat’ appeals, it was Chand that filled the wickets taken column. A smart catch behind from Spud and a Nita special at square leg along with another clean bowled, took Chand close to a first ever club 5 wicket haul. A return to normality in his final two overs ensured this was not to be, as he reverted to type, sending down an array of full tosses and long hops that are more usually associated to his bowling.
If Charlatans had thoughts that they had seen off the cream of our attack, the introduction of Jason and Harpreet soon gave them other ideas. Jason’s looping spin and the line and length of Harpreet ripped out the tail, with Jason returning 3 wickets for only 3 runs and Harpreet taking the other two without conceding a run. There was even time for some comedy keeping from Spud, with a ‘smart’ Damonesque leg-side stumping to remove a bemused Webb for nought. Charlatans sorry demise concluded when Hicks was clean bowled by Harpreet with the total on 45.
