Old Ignation vs N2CC
Sat 4th June 2011
St Ignatius College.

Josh Newham strategically lost the toss on a hot, dry and sunny day only to achieve exactly what the captain wanted by losing the toss and being asked to bat.
On a pitch which did not look rolled or cut, the openers strode out very late after the arranged start time of 2pm due mainly to the opposition who never start on time but also due to the new boys getting lost on the way.N2 had a strong team selected with batting all the way down to number 9… well slight exaggeration but confident anyway. After a couple of early scares, Ryan Barney and Simon Dyer found it difficult to score on a pitch which was more unpredictable than the bowling! Simon Dyer fell to a fine ball from N2's historic nemesis - Indiri who last year took 5 wickets in the corresponding fixture. However, luckily for N2, he had a celebration the night before which was continuing in his head and stomach. Dyer fell for 8 but only after helping N2 to 35 and Newham entered the arena again giving the opposition hope with his swashbuckling innings. Newham fell for 25 with N2 on 98 but the first of the new boys Tushar Depala strode out and without even taking a guard already seemed to put fear into the bowlers mind. A couple of runs (and balls) later he marched back scratching his head and wondering why the wicketkeeper stumped him???The next new boy, Chirag Somchand walked out having seen his friends short innings and got away with a dropped (VERY easy) catch to mid off. Undeterred and awakened, he batted well whilst Ryan continued his innings at the other end only succumbing to a catch to one of the few opposition players who would hold it on 74. Somchand played extremely well on his debut and along with another good innings from Robbie Crouchley, helped N2 to an unassailable 215 for 6 - or so the skipper hoped.A slightly long tea led N2 to wonder whether the opposition had already planned on batting for a draw… of course not :)The match clock was saying that N2 had just over one hour and 20 overs to bowl out Ignations. Possible? Both bowling and batting were very difficult on a very soft crumbling pitch and a strong cross wind. Jacobi and Bhatt bowled well but were unable to break the openers until the 8th over and the battle of wills began. When one fell they both fell. Catches were dropped at critical times which was to be the story as the win seemed to be slipping away. However Bhatt persevered and was rewarded early on with a spell of 9 overs for 4 wickets before making some bowling changes including some passages of play which would have Boycott ranting "Gud Creeket" especially the balls leading to two catches behind. The batsmen were solid and N2 found it difficult to find a way through but the odd catch here and there would have been nice. Bhatt returned to bowl with 4 wickets remaining and 5 overs left. Could it be? Well the boy done good but not good enough ending with 7 wickets for 24 runs. and the oppo had the last men standing.

Man of the match Shai Bhatt closely followed by great batting from Ryan Barney and Chirag Somchand.

Batting:
R. Barney -  caught  74
S. Dyer - caught 8
J. Newham - c&b 25
T. Depala - stumped 2C.
Somchand - lbw 58
R. Crouchley - stumped 32
A. Patel -  NOT OUT 2
N. Young - NOT OUT 3

Extras 11
Total 215 for 6 in 35 overs

Bowling:
Bhatt -        12 overs - 6 maidens - 24 runs - 7 wickets
Jacobi -       9   5   25     1
Shah A - 3  0   20     0  
Butler -     4  1   13     0 
Crouchley R -  2  1   4   0
Depala T -     2  0   3     1
Young -  2  0   6     0

Match drawn.