Report by Tom Serby:
Aside from the unseasonally warm weather, the second week of Remnants season carried on from where it left off last Wednesday both with another dramatic finish, and "deus ex machina" (Mortlock 2018) Matt Samson once again single-handedly engineering a fully quorate Remnants team after a flurry of late withdrawals. The stand-in skipper's bowling and batting plans, already confused due to a faulty ink cartridge, had to be hastily revised when reinforcements arrived from the CUCC 2nd XI's double header T20 against the Royal Navy at Girton: Matt and Olly Melville, both eager for their third game of the day.
Prior to play, the captains entered into negotiations about the potential fixing of who should bat first, on the grounds that Remnants were likely to be at 8 only until the arrival of possible reinforcements; Centaurs hubristically suggesting they would prefer not to field first in case the "weak" Remnants side didn't post a big enough total to allow for a sufficiently testing chase. Cue a toss which Centaurs won; cue the arrival of our reinforcements.
The Centaurs batting was all "shabbash" and sixes, realising 157 off 13 eight-ball overs (which in tone with the evening was scaled down late in the first innings when, after a number of stoppages for lost balls, it became apparent we were potentially running out of daylight for a full quota of 28 overs). One of our late arrivals was wicket keeper Kshitij Sabnis, whose role went instead to James Crozier, a more than capable stand-in on the night. None of the Remnants bowlers found it easy to contain the aggressive batting - of 7 dismissals 3 were run outs - with Aayush Sonthalia easily winning the prize for least containing bowling: 1/37 off 2 . . .
. . . which I can only mention since he undoubtedly ended up massively in credit, after his own knock: batting at number 3 he smashed 57* off just 24 ballls. In the chase the other Remnants batters chipped in around him, seven making it into double figures (equalling the all-time club record), but no one exceeding Matt's 22 (off 13 ball). With 3 overs to go, with our their wickets gone, Remnants was looking at 2 a ball to overhaul their target - long odds, in other words. However, Olly Melville (17 off 11 balls) and Seth Aycock (11* off 3 balls), alongside of course the undefeated AS, contrived a memorable win off the penultimate ball, helped out as was only to be expected by some very entertaining "buzzers". So for all the general disorganisation, a brilliant game of cricket, and thanks to Russell for scoring and Geoff for umpiring throughout.