In an exciting 35-over clash at Dundonald Rec on the hot summer’s day with temperature reaching 30℃ and of course we lost the toss. The Gents of West London secured a decisive victory over CICC, crushing hopes for unbeaten August and winning by 75 runs. Even with 10 players CICC showed a great character and fight under the captaincy of Sam O’Connell.
The bowling attack from CICC was led by Leon Crowley, who claimed 2 wickets for 30 runs in his 5-over spell. Shantan Tanuku took 1 wicket for 54 runs. Despite the efforts of the bowlers, the Gents’ batting line-up managed to maintain a steady run rate throughout the innings. The Gents also benefited from a significant number of extras, totalling 39 runs, which boosted their final score to 266.
Chasing a formidable target of 267, CICC struggled to build momentum against a disciplined bowling performance by the Gents. CICC’s innings started with Matt Williams, who was trapped LBW for 13 runs. Contributions from Dan Maitra (23 runs) and Naitik Rathod (38 runs) provided some resistance, but they were unable to form lasting partnerships to challenge the Gents’ total.
CICC faced a steady fall of wickets, with notable dismissals including James Lynch (13 runs) caught, and Leon Crowley falling for a duck. Sam O’Connell offered a glimmer of hope with a retired hurt score of 35, but the tailenders could not sustain the chase, culminating in a total of 191 runs. Extras contributed 24 runs to CICC’s score, ending their innings at 191, with a scorebook discrepancy of 192.
Editor’s note: Now I’m not going to criticise anyone who does a match report for me, even if they might have got AI to do the heavy lifting for them, but this one does leave out a few details. Fair enough, I suppose as it was not a highlight of CICC’s season. On a very hot day, 10 CICC fielders did a lot of leather chasing on a surprisingly good park wicket. We were then never up with the rate and fell a distant 2nd, but there are a couple of moments that I think are worth adding to the above report. Firstly Leon’s first wicket, initially swinging into the left hander before pitching and seaming away to take middle and off stump – after spending most of the season doing his finest Ben Stokes-specialist-batter-due-to-injury impression this was quite the way to return to bowling action.
Secondly, Dan Maitra earning the headband in spectacular style. Bowling the last over of the innings, Dan was turned into the legside directly to the only fielder in on the one – me standing needless close at mid wicket. The non-striker called one and set off, the striker quite rightly was having none of it and sent him back, but he’d gone too far and the run out was certain. I took my time and under-armed it in with uncharacteristic accuracy for what was going to be a direct hit. Except Dan hit the stumps first, back-pedaling through them, scattering them far and wide across the square and landing in a heap where they once stood. Apart from these two memorable points in the game, there wasn’t much else to report. Well played Gents, and in particular their number 4 for an excellent century.
About the author: We don’t ask Jaymin Pandya how he manages to find so many cricketers to turn out for CICC at short notice. Is it blackmail, bribery or is he actually the friendliest man in Cricket, we don’t ask. On the field Jaymin has made an instant impact at CICC, taking the most wickets in his first two seasons, to deservedly win 2023’s Players’ Player award (even if he voted for himself).
