Our summer league campaign began on Tuesday evening with a visit to Cobden Hill by Old Albanian.

A lost toss meant we were asked to bowl. We had the best possible start with Akein knocking over their high profile opener with the third ball of the innings. Akein’s spell was fantastic, he bowled their other opener too and finished with figures of 3-0-9-2. Ben (1-16) got involved at the other end as OAs were left with an early rebuild to negotiate. We have been guilty of this a number of times this season, when in a position of dominance we have been unable to fully stamp our authority on the game, and this happened again here. Whilst we picked up wickets, our opponents still managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over, and once more our extras count and our occasional lapses in the field would prove costly. Our opponents finished on 123-7, with our other wickets takers being Shahmeer (2-19) who combined twice with Issa behind the stumps, Sahas (1-24) and Arhaan (1-26). As well as Issa, the other catches were taken by Aarav at cover and Arhaan off his own bowling.

With a fast outfield now a given, this target was well within reach. Aarav and Akein got us off to a perfect start as both reached retirement. Aarav (27*) was quiet to begin with but finished with a flourish including a monster six that scattered the crowd gathered in front of the pavilion. Akein continued where he had left off at the weekend (a fine half century for the 3rd XI) and eased his way to 25. Ayaan was joined by Arhaan, and Arhaan too played his part, however, our visitors were starving us of runs and soon the run rate was beginning to head in the wrong direction. With us being unable to wrestle back momentum we lost Arhaan run out for a well made 25. In rapidly fading light, Sahas tried his best but with little time and the strike lacking rotation we ended up making a bit of a mess of proceeding, and in a desperate last over we conspired to lose five wickets (an achievement in itself!), the first four of which were run outs. The outcome a loss by 8 runs.

This was a tough one to swallow as we were in the box seat for the majority of the chase, and whilst we failed to get over the line, our opponents were far tidier in the field (it’s difficult to recall a mis-field) and their bowling more disciplined than ours.

M.O.M. Akein Akein Akein