Lime Meadow Ave, Sanderstead, South Croydon CR2 9AS
Match report v Trinity Mid Whitgiftians 12th May 2024
Bowlers on top as most batters struggle!
Our host’s fine ground nestles in the leafy suburbs of south London surrounded by large detached houses with an assortment of posh cars – a safe distance from Croydon! The bus journey to the ground passed a multitude of churches so there must be a high attendance.
It was our first ever match here – it’s the home team of Robert , our super scorer who was very happy to welcome us at last.
A bowler must have put out the boundary markers as the pristine outfield seemed to disappear over the horizon. A pitch inspection confirmed that the wicket was top-notch as expected , still a little dampness that would probably dry out as the day progressed.
What a day it was , surely the best of the year so far , cloudless with a lovely temperature – perfect conditions for the beautiful game.
The toss won, skipper Stuart decided we’d bat with Niroshan and newbie Shumail opening for us. Injured Adam generously came along and umpired the whole game topping up his suntan.
TMW opened with accurate spin and medium pace – the score reached 15 when Niroshan sportingly walked after a faint edge to the keeper. Shumail looked good until a mistimed stroke saw him caught and bowled – 19 for 2.
Kash’s friend Kerjriwal could not resist a tempting half volley (perhaps a little early in his innings) resulting in a smart catch – 20 for 3. Stu then received a snorter of a yorker and was bowled – we were now 24 for 4 in the 6th over and in trouble.
Mark in at 6 joined Leo who’d come in at 3 – these 2 then compiled what turned out to be the match winning partnership. Leo took a bit of time to adjust to the pace of the wicket then opened his shoulders producing some trade mark crunching drives and half volleys in his favoured “V” between mid-off and mid-on. Mark provided the perfect supporting role keeping the strike rotating not letting the bowlers dominate as they had earlier.
These 2 took the score to 77 in the 23rd over before Leo holed out on the boundary – he advanced from 40 to 50 in two shots , a 4 and 6 finally being out for a thoroughly entertaining 68 with 5 fours and 2 sixes. Kash added 5 and then Mark was finally bowled for an important 15 including a nice pulled 4.
The lower order then took our total to what seemed to be a below par 131 all out in the last over – Ratan scored 11 very useful runs
A sumptuous tea was then taken (sadly a rarity for us) – Robert informed us that Covid had not put a stop to teas at TMW as at most clubs
Graces took to the field knowing that we would need to get our hosts all out as we didn’t have many runs to play with. A good team talk from the skipper helped gee us up – Kash and Shumail opened our bowling and immediately put pressure on their openers with some tight bowling. Kash bowled 5 overs for only 9 runs while Shumail (what a fine addition to our squad he is) took 2 wickets for only 7 runs with 4 maidens in his 8 over spell.
Mark and Majid continued to keep the pressure up – unbelievably our hosts didn’t hit a boundary until the 26th over!
Wickets fell regularly with batters hanging around but not being able to pierce the field – at 52 for 5 in the 24th over we were feeling in control but any big hitting would take the game away from us – their danger man Warne in at 7 then hit a tempting shorter delivery straight to Stuart who snaffled a sharp chance – 52 for 6 , our tails were up!
Rajkumar, in at 8, hit his first delivery for 4 (their first!) and looked a potential match winner – This was their key partnership as with Armfield (number 5 who stuck around for 27 overs) – 37 runs were added as Graces became concerned until Ratan our number 6 bowler managed to get under Rajhumar’s bat to bowl him for a classy 22 – 89 for 7 after 32 overs.
In the field Leo’s head and Jonner’s knee had each saved a boundary!
The 8th wicket took the score to 117 with some big hits and TMW were back in the game – however our tight bowling continued and as the run rate increased we bowled them out for 122 – a win by 9 runs!
A great game – it’s really satisfying to win these tight matches – Mark took 3 wickets with Ratan , Shumail and Majid 2 each. Stuart took 3 catches and almost held on to a stratospheric 4th!
Our hosts are a super friendly and hospitable team and would love us to visit them again.