Report by Daniel Mortlock:
This was an evening where where a crystal ball would have been much more use than one made of leather: if we'd been able to peer even an hour into the future, by which time the steady rain at Fitz had set in, we would surely all have stayed at home. The problem was that it had been a pretty nice day, sunny for the most part, albeit with some clouds drifting in during the afternoon, and there hadn't been even a spot of rain . . . until the precise millisecond that the first ball of the game was delivered.
Fortunately, if cruelly, this was by our opponents, the Sharks, who, having dutifully made their way to Fitz despite weather-related misgivings, then called incorrectly at the toss and were hence forced out into field. They were thus condemned to spend an hour or so going through the motions with a water-logged ball, slippery outfield and a more abstract sense of "Why can't we all just go home?" The vibe was set from the first over, which began with a full toss that was slapped to the boundary, continued with an off-side wide and a leg-side wide, and then a first decent decent ball . . . which was effortlessly reverse-swept off middle stump for three. The Sharks unsurprisingly struggled in the field, with several ordinarily straightforward catches going to ground - although the conditions can't really be blamed in the case of a skier that went high enough that the bowler and two other fielders had time to form a neat equilateral triangle from which they guided the ball down like a cross between air traffic controllers and the witches in Macbeth. In this context the putative player of the match would have been one of their younger players (possibly, if implausibly, named Jack Shark) who, while fielding in what looked like sliders, held three tricky outfield catches without looking like dropping the ball.
Of course this is a Remnants match report, so really should make some mention of our players did - which was, basically, to score lots of runs in slightly atypical ways. In his first Remnants game of the season Hari Kukreja surprised everyone by ditching his usual classical strokeplay in favour endless reverse sweeps - this could easily have been a dick move but for the fact it was repeatedly successful, yielding the majority of his 38* retired (off just 21 balls). Also atypical was that Joe White was opening the batting, not the bowling; and, perhaps inspired by some combination of Hari's shot-making or his own elevation, Joe tonked like never before, as highlighted by a straight six back over the bowler's head on his way to 35* retired off 25 balls. It was already pretty clear that we would have been part-way to a big win but for the weather - it was tempting to contemplating a declaration - and even though we did lose a few wickets (including TK, caught in the exact same spot as he had been last night), the runs kept coming. Late-arriving Chris Badger looked set to join the retirement crowd, having raced to 27* off 17 balls . . .
. . . at which point the rain got heavier and Dave Norman pulled the plug in decisive fashion by driving onto the ground with the covers in tow. It was definitely the right call - what had been drizzle became steady rain for the rest of the evening - and the only pity is that it hadn't happened an hour earlier.