Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs Reading Civil Service 30th June 2001

BACK

Report by Fingers

Can't we win a game easily? Maximum points at least but winning games by single figure margins is no good for anyone's heart.

Having won the toss and elected to bat we made a good start to the innings with the hundred brought up off the first ball of the 17th over. James Codd and Clyde Cutting played in their normal aggressive styles and were helped by a particularly belligerent extras who went on to score a fine fifty. At 105-1 a big total looked in the offing.

However, good bowling by Rashid Choudry and Eddie Green led to a dramatic slowing of the scoring rate and middle order collapse with five quick wickets falling to leave us at 120-6. We seem to have been in this sort of position more than once this season and again the lower middle order was able to do its job as it did against Mortimer West End and Woodley. Mo Iqbal and Chris Lemm put on a partnership of 91 for the 7th wicket, a new record for the 1st XI and overall club record, at an increasing rate before Lemm was out for a valuable 38. Fine hitting with no trace of the bottom hand coming in to play from the captain made up to some extent for his running out of Iqbal (44) going for a second that better runners between the wicket would have struggled to make. At the end there was only about five yards in it. A total of 244-9 looked good on paper but at Theale these days it probably counted as no better than par for the course.

Batting second Reading Civil Service got off to an equally quick start to suggest that we were going to need every one of our 244. Choudry struck Lemm for one huge six over the trees towards the church and followed it with a one bounce four over extra cover. At this point the decision to let Mo mark the boundary on Friday night unsupervised was looking a mistake as it seemed a lot shorter all round. The boy Lemm, who had looked genuinely shocked at the size of the six he had been hit for, kept his composure and came back to bowl Rashid with the final ball of the over which was a fine inswinging yorker/full toss (delete as appropriate depending on how generous you are feeling).

With the first ball of his next over Lemm took another wicket and then the first of what proved to be three crucial run outs left RCS 65-3. RCS continued to score quickly though and good partnerships between Jamil and Denton and then 84 for the 6th wicket between Denton and Green put them firmly in control at 207-5, the similarities with the game at Mortimer West End continued.

The return of the opening bowlers, Iqbal and Lemm, made the breakthrough to put us back in the game. Iqbal bowled Green for a fiercely struck 52 which was then followed by the decisive run out of Kevin Denton for a well made 60. Lemm then got rid of the dangerous looking Asgal but at 235-8 RCS were still favourites before Iqbal again located the stumps.

The final wicket was again one to test everybody's heart. The ball was in the gloves of Jenkins over the stumps and both batsmen were in the crease with him. All that was required was to roll the ball to the other end and for the bowler to take off the bails. Now, Mo had batted well as he has done all season and was bowling an excellent second spell but at the same time his fielding had not been up to the same standard. Was there no one else who could have got to the stumps to take his place? Fortunately he managed to gather the ball just about cleanly and break the stumps before the batsmen made his ground. This late collapse left RCS 5 runs short despite having six overs in hand (who suggested declaring?)