Davipart won the toss and elected to bat, sending in seasoned campaigners S Sandhu and G. Dhillon to open the batting.
Watson and Bell opened the bowling for Mallards with both batsmen proceeding to play their shots and putting the fielders under pressure with quick singles before Sandhu drove a well
pitched ball from Bell into the waiting hand of the Mallards stand-in captain Malik at long off.
Any hopes that this wicket would slow the run rate down was quickly dashed and G. Dhillon and Seth were soon back in the club house with their feet up retired on 30 each. Watson 4-0-0-27 and Bell 3-0-1-24 were then replaced by Goldsborough and Malik who both ran in hard and bowled a good line and length. Goldsborough was eventually rewarded with a wicket as A Sandhu skied one towards Boyes who not only called that the catch was his but also caught it (always a good combination).
A Dhillon also retired on 34 after a flurry of boundaries. The match was briefly halted when Malik attempted another wonder catch at long off and sustained a hand injury but after application of the
magic sponge was judged to be fit to play. Goldsborough 4-0-1-28 and Malik 4-0-0-37 made way for the “pace off” combination of Boyes and Latif.
After a disappointing start in which Latif bowled 6, wide, 1 and 4 he produced his Gatting ball and bowled Azam around his legs. Six balls
later he induced a slice from Gillfillan which fell into the safe hands of Mr ‘two catches’ Boyes who then proceeded to prove that he doesn’t just catch balls by blasting out the tail which was just
as well as it looked like J Ward was trying to excavate a trench across the popping crease.
A fine bowling display from the second change saw Boyes finish on 3-0-2-17 and Latif 2-0-2-22 and an excellent wicket keeping display from Colin McCaffery
A score of 155 to win, not impossible but 7.75 runs an over against a largely spin attack was a tough target.
Ankush and McCaffrey took to the field to face the spin twins of Thompson and Bodera. Ankush unfortunately couldn’t repeat his 157 run innings a mere 5 days earlier and perished in the first
maiden over giving a lollipop catch to square leg.
McCaffrey followed 8 balls later for 1 leaving Mallards 2 for 3. Thankfully Binmore and Ramsay took the attack to the opposition hitting a flurry of boundaries before Binmore retired on 32 and Ramsay was bowled by J Ward for an excellent
11.
Malik was then bowled by Gilfillan for a duck. Thankfully the partnership of Hardy and Latif steadied the ship and the ball once again started to race across the boundary rope with the Davipart spinner Aryan taking a bit of tap and conceding 28 runs off 2 overs. Hardy retired on 33 and Bell entered the fray only to be dismissed first ball. It was at this point that Ankush took over the score book and things start to get a bit hazy.
During a break in play in which no batsmen were padded up Micky Collins attempted to take the field in shorts, T shirt and without pads to keep the game going but luckily a batsman appeared from the dressing room and Collins returned to the safety of the bar.
Latif (17 n.o.) soldiered on sheperding the tail of Boyes (0) and Watson (2 n.o.) taking Mallards to a very creditable 120 from 20 overs.