Dominant Guildford Win Chase in Style

In scenes reminiscent of Headingley, Ashtead won the toss and elected to bat on a cloudy day, despite the protestations of Chad that we had a very strong team and should be allowed to bat first to make a game of it. They thus have no-one to blame but themselves when they lost one of their openers to the first ball of the match as Akash delivered a perfect inswinging yorker. Having fluffed his most important line of the day, Ashtead's captain Matt then took responsibility to rectify the blunder himself, racking up a half century. Mohan was brought into the attack by Chad and didn't disappoint, sending Matt back to the pavilion and bagging another with his slow left arm spin. While wickets kept falling at regular intervals, Ian batted well in the middle before getting bowled by a beauty by Akash. Newcomer Siddarth, aka Virat Kohli's #1 fan, kept up the standards of Guildford's substantial Indian contingent, picking up 3 wickets on debut. Possibly drained by his death-bowling heroics the week before, Tristan went wicketless for a change in a quietish game by his lofty standards. Ashtead fell just short of using up their 35 overs and were bowled out for 157, with an extraordinary one-handed catch by Akash to dismiss the last man.

In reply, Guildford dominated from the start of the chase, going at 7 runs an over. Having finally overcome his 4th-XI hoodoo, Aditya picked where he left off the previous week and played a calm and safe game, whereas u13 axe-murderer Alex Jourdan was in a hurry to finish things off. Even the drizzle didn't stop him from hitting out, eventually falling to Dhruv for 39 off only 29 balls. Mohan opened his account with 3 well-run doubles, his partnership with Aditya taking Guildford to within touching distance of the target. Unfortunately he missed his 50 again, by 7 runs. His search for a maiden half-century continues, and as he is a non-drinker we cannot accuse him of jug-avoidance. Aditya and Tristan completed the formalities, seeing Guildford to the finishing line in only the 22nd over to cap a dominant performance.

Skipper Murrin reflected in satisfaction on a strong team effort by his side that required him to do as little running around as possible, although that had to be tempered by the knowledge that after more than 5 glittering decades at the highest level of amateur game, he was now reduced to the indignity of being a substitute for cricketing plankton such as Hussain.

Congratulations to Noah for his senior debut (and apologies that Ashtead's determination not to listen to Chad meant that his contribution was limited to a fine fielding display), and thanks to dad Shaun for dusting off his whites following a late drop-out.