Match Report
Ashburnham Arms 28th May at Greenwich Park
Crusaders supplemented by a heavy presence from Gagan CC, played their first T20 game of the season at Greenwich Park on Thursday. Under leaden skies Spud called correctly and with a wealth of batting talent at his disposal opted to take first knock.
Gurjinder and Mandeep dominated the opening exchanges, each making their way to ‘retirement’ at 25, with an array of boundaries. After 6 overs we were well placed on 54 and there was much talk of a score upwards of 160 being set. Having overseen many of these fixtures, Spud was less inclined to speculate, safe in the knowledge that Crusaders are never too far from a batting collapse. It soon became apparent that the slower you bowled the more difficult run scoring became. With pace taken off the ball and an inconsistent low bounce from a typically slow Greenwich pitch, a succession of Crusaders batsmen perished with little addition to the score.
Luigi restored some order to proceedings with a watchful 15 and some late scurrying by Spud and Lucky ensured we set a respectable target of 130 for victory.
The Ash set about the target in robust style, content to take on the field and rotate the strike. Harry made the breakthrough after initially struggling with his line, when he found the outside edge of Charlie’s bat to send the opener back for 9. The Ash continued to test our fielding reactions, with both of their better batsmen eventually taking a risk too far and falling to accurate throws from Mandeep and Gurjinder respectively. The inconsistent bounce of the Greenwich strip was perfectly demonstrated when Mandeep took wickets with consecutive balls, the first which reared off a length and was gloved to Chand at Square Leg and the second which barely got off the turf before crashing into the stumps. These setbacks knocked the stuffing out of our hosts, allowing Spud the luxury of rotating the mercurial bowling talents at his disposal. Tejinder must surely have caught the eye of Gagan’s hierarchy, with three accurate overs and a maiden wicket for the club and Luigi explored a corridor of uncertainty just below City Airport’s flight path. A wicket a-piece for Daljit and Jagdesh brought the game to a close, both by virtue of good catches from Gurjinder and Sam ‘bucket hands’ Singh. With Ashburnham having twelve players attending, we were able to take a look at the developing Sukhi Singh. He has obviously not taken too much notice of his father and looks to be a talent for the not too distant future.
