On a beautiful sunny evening perfect for cricket, the respective 11’s for Mallards and Riding Mill gathered at Riding Mill to play against each other for the first time since the very sad passing of Peter Nitsch, a great friend and servant of both sides [allegedly for the Peter Nitsch Tankard – a trophy that in true disorganised tradition has yet to be procured, but rest assured will – Ed.] What unfolded was a real roller-coaster game of highs and lows.
Skipper Latif won the toss and chose to bat first, shuffling the batting order a little due to some late arrivals. Wilson Snr and Ajay Rathinam opened the batting and starting well with 15 scored off the first 2 overs. Things then took a turn for the worse as 2 wickets fell in the 3rd with both Wilson Snr and Ankush recording rare ducks (well in Ankush’s case at least!) The rollercoaster was now gathering pace down hill as Pradeep fell cheaply in the 4th over followed by Nish and Wilson Jnr in the 6th and Skipper Liaquat and debutant Jamie Park in the 7th leaving Mallards on 43 for 7 with the bulk of the runs being scored by Ajay who was batting well amid the carnage at the other end and against some good bowling from Micky Collins and Katie Smith who finished their allotted 4 overs with figures of 1 for 20 and 3 for 19 respectively.
Second Mallards debutant of the night Joe Withers came to the crease somewhat surprised to be batting in the 7th over as the number 9 batter(clearly not played for Mallards!). Together with Ajay, Joe helped put the brakes on the free-falling coaster and started steadily accumulating some runs raising hopes that for the second game in a row Mallards might scrape a 3 figure score after a nightmare start to their innings. Unfortunately Ajay had to retire on 33 with the score on 60ish(score book doesn’t record exact score) however Joe continued well at the other end and new batter Pete Bell played himself in with a few dot balls before scoring more freely hitting 3 4’s before falling for an entertaining 14 with the score just shy of 100. Butcher came and went without troubling the scorers(making a total of 5 ducks for the Mallards innings!) bringing Ajay back to the crease with over 6 overs left and the score on 104 for 9. Ajay obviously still had his eye in as he attacked the bowling with gusto hitting 5 4’s to pass 50 and then a bullet like 6 straight at the pavilion which had watching Mallards scrambling to get out of the way. Unfortunately Tom Browne didn’t quite manage instead only succeeding in getting a glancing header on the ball before it smashed in to the away dressing room glass door! After a few anxious moments checking out Tom and the door [what about the poor ball?? – Ed.] the game resumed and while Tom was expertly looked after by Liv from the Mill, Ajay and Joe continued scoring with a century for Ajay looking like a real possibility with him reaching 76 with 3 overs left. However Riding Mill still had Andy Watson up their sleeve and his increased pace proved harder to get away and after 4 dot balls Ajay lost his leg stump attempting to sweep(or was it a ramp?!). An amazing effort by Ajay who finished on 76 and ably supported by Joe who finished on 27 not out to take Mallards to a very respectable (and highly unlikely after 7 overs) 147 all out. Game definitely on.
Bell and Nair opened the bowling for the Mills reply and claimed an early wicket a piece to dismiss openers Watson and Kent to leave the Mill on 15 for 2 in the third and Mallards still on the up. However a most unfortunate low soon followed as a very un-Mallardian exchange with the umpire resulted in Liaquat having to finish Pradeep’s 3rd over. Rogers and Bennett took up batting duties and scored well with Bennett retiring on 30 bringing in Collins who continued in the same vein taking Mill to 101 for 2 after 12 and then 127 for 2 off 15 with 21 required off 5 overs. By this stage both Rodgers and Collins had retired and with young Lewis Johnston and Becca Emery at the crease the scoring rate slowed significantly. Ajay and Joe bowled spells before Nish, Liaquat and Butcher bowled the last 5 between them taking the wickets of Johnston and Emery and more crucially restricting the scoring to just 15 leaving the Mill finishing just short of their target on 142 for 4, meaning the ‘Lards won by 5 runs. A fantastic effort by Mallards especially in the field, it was great to have young Alistair Wilson back with his trade mark whippet like runs to intercept the ball and hurl it back. Joe took 2 catches and made a couple of great stops and debutant Jamie made some great if slightly unorthodox stops, backed extremely well and pulled off one almost miraculous stop on the boundary as he sprinted and flung himself full length to claw the ball back just before it crossed the boundary and he flew over it! It will surely be a strong contender come end of season awards time.
A great game of cricket by and large played in a good spirit but sadly tarnished (in the eyes of your reporter) by a moment of poor sportsmanship by Mallards. Post-game saw a great spread laid on by Liaquat and some lovely words spoken in memory of Peter Nitsch, which I think should act as a timely reminder to us all that winning is nice but playing in the right spirit and always respecting your opponents is key above all else.