A great night for cricket, blazing sun and high temperatures on one of the longest days of the year. If they could ignore the impromptu penalty shootout taking place on the boundary, the few random spectators who made their way down to Belmont CC were treated to a picture perfect scene.
The mutually agreed plan was to cut the night short, reducing the game to 18 overs a side and keeping fingers crossed that the England football match kicking off at 9pm would be accessible. Belmont’s handy openers ensured that everyone got home in time, with Mallards being the sadder of the two teams to wrap up so quickly. Not before a Mallard of the Match performance from Jamie Park at the crease and some tidy bowling against the middle over made the batters work for their runs.
Winning the toss Belmont’s captain chose to bowl, surprising both teams equally and giving the middle order Mallards some time to enjoy the sun, or the shade if you were Ajay. L. Latif, D. Cox and A. Rathinam put in a solid performance to open up the scoring piling on over half of the eventual 80 run innings total. J. Park followed up with a marathon innings to add on another 10, and the lower order of M. Butcher, J. Sackville, K. Latif and C. McCaffery rounding out the innings with 14 runs between them. As always, E. Xtras continues to be a Mallards stable, with a respectable 8 runs across their 8 balls.
Half time discussions in the ‘lards dressing room will have centred around the plan for tidy bowling, stump to stump lines and god lengths. Imagine their surprise when openers A. Rathinam and J. Sackville were pumped around for 10 runs an over through their spells. Some half chances missed across the first 4 overs, deliveries staying mostly within the stump to stump line as instructed by the skipper, on another day the game may have lasted long enough to make catching the kick off for England vs Ghana more of a problem. Although on reflection that doesn’t sound so bad at all.
L. Latif, D.Cox and S. Holland came in with some serious work to do, Belmont needing to score at less than 3 an over. Toiling in the heat they did manage to delay the inevitable, and D. Cox managed to take a wicket along the way, finishing with the best figures on the night from his 4 overs. The aforementioned inevitable couldn’t be delayed forever, however, and Belmont finished up in tidy fashion.
Good spirits in the field at the conclusion, and some rushed showers and drives home were rewarded with one of the duller 0-0 draws you’ll see in international football.
Mallards will forever wonder ‘What if we batted the full 20? ‘How many runs were those last 16 balls hiding from us?’ ‘How could Harry Kane miss from there?’ and ‘what’s the point of it all?’ The answers will continue to elude us all.