Match Report
Crusaders made their first ever visit to Edmonton (fondly referred to as ‘Shank Town’ by my son) and returned victorious after a good all round team performance. Wajih opted to play the dutiful son on Father’s Day, which left Spud in charge of a team bolstered by the inclusion of League Quality Players Jagdesh and Harry and giving a Sunday debut to Himanshu Pathania. Our hosts, a mature mixture of West Indians and Asians appeared in no rush to get proceedings underway, but eventually Spud won the toss and elected to field. The pitch was dry, but with a good grass covering, with boundaries short in all directions.
Harry opened up the hill and almost immediately had the openers in trouble. With subtle changes in pace and the ability to swing it both ways, he was soon rewarded with a slower ball that opener Abbas played over and was bowled for one. The other opener Reid was a veritable ‘One Man Cricket Team’ offering advice to the Umpires as to what constitutes a no ball, as well as advising John Rana that he shouldn’t stump him unless he was prepared to stand up to the stumps. I am sure he had a scorebook in his back pocket as well to complete his duties. He was looking to push the score along at every opportunity, aiming some lusty swishes to the short leg-side boundary, which brought him some success, but it is testimony to the fine bowling of Harry and Riyed that more often than not he failed to connect. Riyed was working up a fair head of steam down the hill and was unfortunate not to register a wicket, he was however responsible for the second breakthrough, removing Choudhry with an excellent run out from mid on after he was called through for a risky single. Harry added two further wickets in quick succession, one a perfect in-swinger, before Spud took the decision to keep two of his overs back.
Turning to spin, Spud partnered Chand through the middle overs of the innings and gradually the runs dried up. Chand bowled an excellent spell up the hill considering his first delivery disappeared for six. Changing to around the wicket he was able to cramp Reid for space and he eventually holed out to Harry at mid-wicket for 47. Edmonton seemed content to keep wickets in hand and batted cautiously, with Adolphe and Skipper Brown putting on 82 for the seventh wicket, but they never really put their foot down, posting a target of 172-7 at 40 overs.
After a tea break attempting to instil the virtues of laying a sound foundation and not taking unnecessary risks, Spud realised he had been talking to Chand and retired to the score box to watch events unravel. Jagdesh made a typically positive start, with some lusty blows taking him to sixteen, before he chipped straight to mid-wicket. Chand was joined by Himanshu and together the pair put on a largely un-troubled fifty partnership. Himanshu was the perfect foil to Chand, playing each ball on its merits, while the senior partner did what Chand does. With the game drifting away from Edmonton it took a moment of Chand madness to restore a glimmer of hope to the home side. Attempting to turn a close run two into a ridiculous three, Himanshu was found well short of making his ground and was comfortably run out. To compound matters further Chand then chased a wide delivery and sliced the ball into the waiting hands of point. To his credit he had made 54, but as has been all too common this season we had heaped some unwanted pressure on the lower order. The Rock, who was sent in to restore some semblance of order, promptly slapped the ball to gully and liking the sound of the shot set off, calling Lucky through for a single. A scampering Lucky made his ground comfortably, but G Man for some reason was standing mid stumps seemingly in suspended animation and was run out by half a pitch length. Lucky was in no mood to hang around (something to do with work commitments), clattering boundaries in all directions and he quickly collected 29 runs before being caught in the deep. At 129-6 with overs in hand we needed a cool head to guide us home – a position tailor-made for IPL Jony Singh. With John Rana batting responsibly at the other end they carried the score to 150, before Jony aimed a rash swing at a full delivery and was bowled. Fortunately we still had our Star performer Harry in the hutch and helped by some loose bowling and well judged running between the wickets we edged home by 2 wickets with six overs to spare.
