Report by Quentin Harmer:
Remnants batted first and made what felt like an under-par 121. The Sharks' bowling was mostly accurate, the fielding was sharp and their field always seemed well-placed to stop the fours. A slow outfield also turned a number of boundary shots into twos. Chris Badger top scored with 30 (off 32 balls) and CJ Barrie adding a handy 21* (off 16 balls) towards the end.
The Sharks' reply featured impressively tight opening spells from Sushant Achawal (2/18) and Temoor Khan (3/8). A wicket from the second ball of the seventh over off Quentin Harmer (1/25) left the Sharks on 28/6 after 6.2 (eight ball) overs. The Remnants continued to apply pressure with unusually tight fielding, conceding only five boundaries in total. Three catches were taken and none dropped; this including a stunning, nonchalantly-grabbed, single-handed return catch by James Robinson (2/33), the ball being flat-batted back at him with pace at head height. Chrid Badger's field placements were inspired. There were numerous tight run out and stumping chances with the batsmen narrowly getting home, including a near "double play" when James bowled a high full toss that the batter hit straight up in the air. As 'keeper Neil Grover stepped a few paces from behind the stumps to take the catch, the batters decided to sneak a run. Having taken the catch Neil then threw down the stumps. Unfortunately, the catch didn't count because a no-ball had been called, and then the non-striker was judged to have made his ground. So Neil missed out on achieving two dismissals in a single play. There was some comment about the runout being denied on account of the no ball, but the umpire would probably point out that the runout chance was tight and he judged the batsman home. Neil behind the stumps was finally rewarded with a stumping off James's bowling. The Sharks number 7 attempted a rear-guard action and the upshot was that they needed 21 to win from the last over. James defended this with relative ease despite a no-ball going for four, giving the Remnants an 11-run victory.
Sharks report by Phil:
Tuesday saw a welcome return to bright and warm weather for Sharks' second encounter of the season against Remnants at Fitz. Remnants won the toss and inevitably chose to bat, making the most of the light before the late-season gloom set in.
Sharks got off to a bright start, with the combination of Will (2-0-18) and Jonathan (3-2-13) silencing the threatening Remnants openers, both of whom fell to Jonathan's fine bowling. Sharks were also tight in the field, containing Remnants' scoring despite some hard hitting from batsmen number 3 and 4. In particular, Sharks newcomer Freddie kept pressure on the Remnants running, limiting them to singles with some excellent deep fielding. Phil (2-1-15) and Mani (2-1-8) took a wicket apiece, with Mani's two overs a particular highlight, causing Remnants trouble with well-flighted deliveries. Freddie bowled well for his 2-0-14.
Remnant's middle order, led by Chris Badger (30; caught by Pat with a fine catch, bowled Jason) and CJ Barrie (21 not out), mounted a counter-attack, upping the run rate with a combination of boundary 4s and well-run 1s and 2s. Jason (1-0-21) bore the brunt of two well-set batsman looking to move the score along. After a tidy final over by Jeeva, Remnants finished on 121; setting Sharks an achievable target to win.
Remnants' bowling attack mirrored their batting this evening, with a strong opening pair looking to make an impact. Arguably, their bowlers had the better of it, seeing off the first 5 Sharks batsmen for 25 runs in their allotted 6 8-ball overs. Jeeva (9 off 16 balls), Pat (3 off 3 balls) and Phil (2 off 6 balls) were all bowled by talented Senior 1 Cambourne player T.K., who mixed well-flighted leg spin with tricky pace-variation. Rammers (6 off 7) was unlucky to get a leading edge, looking to played positively, as usual.
It fell to Will and Richard to steady the Sharks ship; the non-retirement format allowed Richard to amass an excellent 42 not out from 37 balls, ably supported by excellent running from Will (16 off 23) and cameos from Mani (4 off 7), Jonathan (4* off 3) and no-balls (13 runs) to edge Sharks closer to the required target. After an extremely challenging start, in usual Sharks style we managed to make the game competitive, reaching 110 to fall just 11 short of the required target.