Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment
Sunday 16 June 1996
London Erratics v Shalbourne
at Shalbourne
Final over mayhem
The Erratics won the toss and elected to field.
|
SHALBOURNE — 125 all out |
LONDON ERRATICS — 125 for 6 |
| Heller | 8 | 2 | 23 | 2 | * | Rivington | caught | 37 | |
| Wallace | 4 | 0 | 7 | 4 | Allan | caught | 8 | ||
| Brind | 4 | 0 | 24 | 1 | † | Khawaja | caught | 49 | |
| Truscott | 4 | 0 | 24 | 2 | Dunabin | caught | 0 | ||
| Meller | 3 | 1 | 10 | 0 | Truscott | run out | 7 | ||
| Rivington | 3 | 0 | 19 | 0 | Long | run out | 1 | ||
| Walker | 4 | 0 | 10 | 0 | Wallace | NOT OUT | 0 | ||
| Walker | |||||||||
| catches: | Meller | ||||||||
| Heller, Khawaja, Walker | Brind | ||||||||
| Heller | |||||||||
Match drawn
| NARRATIVE |
| The Shalbourne batsmen had no idea what hit them. Andy Wallace bowled with pace and aggression to shatter the dreams of Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 6 — each one bowled for nought. And with Richard Heller accounting for the other opener, Shalbourne were dazed at 18 for 5. Don Brind came on as light relief, and he enjoyed success too. The innings began to gain some respectability, but a run out and two wickets for John Truscott kept things in check. The last pair had nothing to lose and put bat to ball. They had taken the score well past three figures when Richard came back to wrap things up with the last ball of the 30th over. |
| The Shalbourne score, which had ended up bigger than had seemed likely at one point, grew by a further two runs when Richard took charge of the scorebook for the Erratics innings and needlessly checked the opposition’s arithmetic. Oh well, it wouldn’t make the difference between winning and not winning, would it? Tim Allan fell quite early, but James Rivington and Nasir Khawaja enjoyed a good partnership of 80, James finally succumbing with the score on 101. Chris Dunabin came and went, but John joined Nasir to steer the Erratics to the verge of victory — three to win off the last over. But wait, there’s consternation on the boundary. Nasir is on 49 and isn’t facing; should they warn John not to try and win the game in one shot? The captain strides out to broadcast the situation publicly. The batsmen take a single, and Nasir duly chips the next ball tamely into the hands of a fielder. Pity, still there’s a game to be won, and Mike Long scores another single to bring the scores level. But somehow panic has set in and, disaster, Mike is run out ... and in a final scramble off the last ball John doesn’t make his ground either. Only the Shalbourne players can see the funny side of it. |
| Moral: there are several, take your pick. |