Report by Daniel Mortlock:
This game simply wasn't going to happen: there were all possible varieties of weather warnings; the rain probabilities were 80% or 90% for the whole day; and members of both teams were both poised over their WhatsApp groups waiting for the call to make alternative (indoor) plans for the evening. But not only did it hardly rain at all in Cambridge, come match time the ground was sparkling in the evening sun.
Having sorted the weather, there was then the issue of players. We were reasonably stable, dropping down only as far as 10, before Hari briefly brought us up to 10.5 and then Rahul reconstituted the 11. Lidgate & Ousden, however, were in free-fall: 11 became 10 and then 11 again; only for their captain to say they'd been as low as 8 but were again at full-strength . . . only for just 10 players to actually make it to the ground. (If you think cricket can be a cruel game to play, that's nothing compared to trying to run a team.)
Anyway, long story long: we got a game, which always matters more once the calendar has ticked over to August and most players have got just a couple of (potential) games left in their seasons. There was no denying the earlier sunset, which we accommodated not only by going down to 14 eight-ball overs (standard), by trying L&O's suggsetion that we bowl 7 overs from one and then then 7 from the other. It definitely felt weird, but the benefit was undeniable: the whole game took only a smidge over two hours.
We batted first and found the going tough. A combination of good bowling, a two-paced pitch and a slow outfield meant that even the best shots often netted two runs and an unplayable delivery was always just around the corner. Out top order managed to ensure we never got bogged down, but neither did they break free, the top five hitting just 3 boundaries between them. Indeed, the most dramatic moment came when Tom Serby (16 off 18 balls) was subject to a huge caught behind appeal: he didn't walk (because, as he later related, he wasn't sure what whether he'd hit the ball); the umpire didn't give him out; and the fielders, as judged by their own organiser/scorer, unambiguously crossed to the wrong side of the invisible line - particularly ironic was to hear the accusation "I thought this was a friendly!" from someone trying to intimidate the batter into walking. It was thus beyond ironic when, a few overs later, Tom did walk after he'd edged the ball to the 'keeper - although it was so blatant that even Stuart Broad would have headed back to the pavilion.
Meanwhile, we got a demonstration of everything that evening cricket is about: Chris Badger (11 off 18 balls) played beautifully only to be repeatedy denied by the damp outfield; whereas Julius Rix (25 off 21 balls) was much more numerically successful by deploying what seems to have been agreed on as his "tennis shot" (a sort of flat forehand with a last-minute wrist-flick to apply top-spin, rather like Djokovic when he's warming up). Rahul Jhawar (a flamboyant 16* off 21 balls) ensured we at least ended up with more than a run a ball - just! - but at the change of innings most of us felt it wasn't quite enough.
Rahul immediately got to continue his good work with the ball, taking 2/6 from his 2 sharp overs as he proved to be too quick for the L&O top order. Unfortunately, we backed up Rahul in the field with a sort of enthusiastic anarchy: the biggest problem was repeated failures to pick up, or even stop, the ball; and it wasn't all good news when we did pick up the ball, as the resultant throws were both fast an off-target, meaning several ridiculous overthrows. Add in 10 byes and it really was a shambolic effort in the field. (It was hence somehow thematic that Chris's direct hit run out wasn't given - to have awarded it would have spoiled the pure imperfection of our fielding efforts.)
The obvious way to bring order to the situation was with our two most experienced evening cricketers, Daniel and Faruk Kara (playing their 382nd and 376th Remnants games, respectively), not least because they appear to be in form, being currently first and equal-second on this season's Remnants wicket-taking list with 21 and 13, respectively. (Honorable mention to Pete Ames, currently tied for second with Faruk.) But instead of experienced cricketers they bowled like old men, 38 runs coming from their three overs, which included the two most expensive of the day.
With experience apparently not being the order of the day, we then turned to two bowlers in their first Remnants seasons, Tim Simmance and Iqtedar Alam (on debut this evening), who made a mockery of what had gone before. Iqtedar, who'd bamboozled our batters when playing for Trinity College High Table a few weeks ago repeated the dose today, beginning his hopefully long Remnants career with a spell of 3 overs, 1 maiden, 3/4, the fifth best debut performance in club history. And then Tim administered the coup de grace by taking three wickets in an over to finish with 4/16 from his 3 overs. The second wicket was completed with perhaps the one unambiguously top bit of fielding, as Gaurav Patil took a good low catch at mid-wicket, a kind of ironic anti-payback for Tim having caught Gaurav when he was subbing for L&O earlier in the day.