The journey to Durham was clearly challenging for some of the Mallards since not all had arrived by the time of the first ball. So Lee Latif relieved Stig of the captaincy (or was it Stig was relieved not to captain?), Durham Staff took to the field and Ankush and Hamid walked out to bat.
The wicket was dry and hard and the first over bowled by Theo was a lively maiden as Ankush took time to adjust to the pace and bounce. Hamid faced the second over and he promptly swatted a no-ball from Jemima to the boundary. However, the last ball of that over Hamid mistimed – oops – as another sweep took a top edge…but fortunately it looped over the head of the ‘keeper for a single: a potential catch narrowly averted. The batsmen changed ends. Hamid defended Theo’s next over, scoring two on the last ball, and then Ankush was next to face Jemima. A good line and length, Ankush stepped confidently forward, and – bang – he hit the ball smartly to long-on… straight into the arms of Ian B. Oh no!
Oh yes! Ian dropped it!… much to the relief of Ankush who went on to score boundaries on each of the next three balls, followed by ‘only’ a single on the last. Spectating Mallards breathed a collective sigh of relief: the master blaster was back on form. This was confirmed when Ankush scored a boundary and two twos off Theo’s third over. Just to show that Jemima was not downhearted by missing out on her first wicket, she went and yorked Hamid LBW in her next delivery. He tramped off for an untypical 7, bringing Pradeep to the wicket. He, at first, had difficulty facing Jemima’s good line and nagging length on an awkward pitch but eventually he settled and so the Mallards pair began to assert their dominance. The bowling changed as Nigel and Ian came on but they could only watch an accelerating flow of runs. Boundary followed boundary until Ankush retired on a maximum 30. Shahrukh, guesting for the Mallards, took his place, tried to emulate his departing colleague and thus smacked his first ball from Ian into the covers, only to see it caught nicely by Guy. Out for a duck. The Mallards are not so-named without reason!
Ajay was next in and the tone of the innings was re-established. Some elegant and effective stroke play continued as first Pradeep retired on 30 then, as new man Abbas joined him, Ajay despatched a huge six and a number of fours to reach his maximum also. The bowling changed but Abbas continued the battering. Lee Latif came and went quickly – another duck – bowled by Durham captain Pat, and Nishal walked out to bat next, until Abbas eventually retired. He was replaced by Colin as Guy came on to bowl, joined by Theo for his fourth. In the final over, Colin (much to his disgust) was given out on 4, LBW to Guy with your correspondent/umpire/sometime Durham player coming out to drive a single off the penultimate ball.
After twenty overs, the Mallards had gained 148 for four. An impressive total, with four batsmen reaching maximums.
Durham batsmen, Will Hall and Guy Paxman, took to the crease to face the opening Mallards attack, yours truly and Shahrukh. They batted resolutely – the game was tightly contested. Runs were coming, if maybe not quite so fast in this innings. Will had scored 27 with a couple of boundaries off your correspondent and an impressive six off Shahrukh until he lifted another off the same bowler to be caught at long-on. Durham were one down for 39 in the sixth over.
Raj was next in. Both batsmen hit out steadily, patiently, although with Will gone, runs were not coming quite so quickly. Pradeep came on to bowl and then Nish as Guy reached 31 to retire. Theo replaced him. He pulled an impressive boundary off Nish but that brought a bowling change and thus Lee Latif into action – the most tantalising, frustrating and devastating of the Mallards attack. Theo was stumped off one bewitching donkey-drop, bringing Jolyon to the crease. Slow bowling brought a slowing run-rate and Durham tried to take one run more than they should – Raj failing to make his ground with Jolyon calling for a quick single. He was run out on 21; Durham were 97 for three in the 16 th over. Durham’s wicket keeper Rich Root joined Jolyon at the crease but Lee was not finished yet. Another rush of blood to the head, galloping down to hoist another donkey-drop, it only resulted in a stumping again as ‘keeper Colin removed the bails and Jolyon had to tramp off, having scored 11. Poppy Martin, making her debut for Durham, was next to face. Lee was replaced by Ajay. He bowled at pace but Rich and Poppy kept him at bay, also Abbas, scoring twos and singles until the last over when Stig came on to finally see Durham off. Rich promptly gave a catch to bring Pat to the crease but despite a couple of boundaries the Mallards total was never in threat – Durham finished with 123 for 5.
The flight of the Mallards continues!