Report by Julius Rix:
With another away game from our beloved Fitzwilliam ground beckoning and the usual reduced numbers of players around summer holidays, a number of reminder emails were sent out to ensure a full turn out for Remnants. Unfortunately stand-in Captain Julius Rix, had to deal with a train related crisis at the last minute which meant that he and the kit arrived 20mins late. This however was not a problem as everyone else had arrived and Chris Badger had stepped in and arranged for Remnants to bat first, possible under pressure from Matt Samson. By the time Julius had got changed Matt (25* off 17 balls) was closing in on retirement at 25 - we were playing IPH's rules as it was their home game. The Queen's outfield desert was holding up well and there was hot muggy breeze which made fielding and batting a sweaty task. Matt duly retired and Martin Prowse (24 off 26 balls on Remnants debut) and Tom Bloomfield (28* off 24 balls) continued to freely score until Matt pointed out that Martin only needed one more to retire, at which point Martin skied the next ball and was caught. Chris Badger (27* off 23 balls) joined Tom and we were given a lovely display of proper cricket shots from both left handed batsmen. Both retired to be replace by Catherine Owen (19* off 16 balls) and Pete Ames (14* off 7 balls), neither of whom hung around in the few overs that they had left. Remnants had set what looked like defendable target of 158, but in this heat wave there have been some very high scores.
Paul Jordan (0/23) opened the Remnants bowling from the south end of the pitch, Naveen (0/18) having chosen the other end as he hadn't got any wickets the last time he bowled from the south end. This first over showed that the 158 target was gettable, with the IPH number 2 batsman hitting a four and then a six off the last two balls. Remnants tightened things up and from then on we were on top with pressure slowly building. The first of the 4 run outs came as the IPH opener chanced Chris Badger's arm. There might have been another run out from Qaiser which just brushed the bails but didn't dislodge them. The number 2 retired and Qaiser (0/12, bowling spin) and Pete Ames (1/10) replaced Paul and Naveen at which point the pressure got too much and the IPH batsmen started to take more risks. Taking on Chris's arm again proved fatal and when the ball went to Chris for a third time and they ran again I don't think he could believe it. An unbelievably sharp stumping by Ev, off Pete's bowling, meant that IPH were out of the game by the midway point. This allowed Julius (1/11) to bowl himself with no pressure, leading to another run out (of the only remaining dangerous batsman) and a nice catch by Ev. Catherine at the other end didn't let up, taking 2/23, the second wicket a beautiful ball that took the top of middle stump. The second to last over was delivered by Matt Samson (0/3) who wanted to demonstrate how much better he was at bowling his leggies now that he is bowling off his front foot and, apart from the first ball, he was right on the money.
A comfortable win in the end which has restored a bit of confidence after the crushing defeat last Wednesday. A full team and a few strong batsmen makes a big difference, especially in these conditions.