The 3s were on the road for the first of three consecutive away games, as we looked to bounce back after the heavy home defeat to St Marys. As seems to be the norm this year, we had a host of changes, welcoming Isaac for his 3s debut, in addition to returns for Nick Rudd, Simmo, Corbyn, Alfie & H.

A scorching hot day greeted the 3s at Ramsdell - the 12:15 meet was missed by the skipper who was too busy chatting in the car to realise that he’d missed the motorway junction. Minor delay aside, the team assembled at the ground, to relatively overcast, but very humid weather, and a pitch & outfield that looked more akin to the very motorway that the skipper forgot to leave. With most of the brains trust indicating we should bat first, the skipper (a stat man as you’ll know), decided to go to the Nasser Hussain school of captaincy and chose to bowl (on a road) after winning the toss. The stats had said chasing was the right way to go on this ground (pending putting restricting the oppo to less than 230), but time would tell if this was to be the right decision.

1st Innings

Paul opened up with the new cherry as usual, and immediately found his rhythm (a couple of front foot no balls aside), bowling that challenging line, enticing the batters to play. Nick Rudd shared the new cherry for his first bowl with the 3s, and bowled a couple of Jaffas early doors. The Ramsdell team was a very experienced side, and their opening batters pounced on anything remotely loose - any short or wide delivery was crunched to the boundary, and with the lightning outfield and a short boundary one side, a shot that picked the gap was bound to be four.

The Ramsdell openers batted with great control, save for a couple of edges that found the gap between Lizo (Slip) and Dave (Gully), and a couple that popped up in the air but fell short of the ring fielders. With some drizzle in the air, Paul was keeping it metronomically tight at the top end, but the Ramsdell openers started to free their arms. Gisele joined the attack to try to find the breakthrough, bowling some lovely deliveries - a couple of nice slower balls were executed well, and surprised both the batters and unfortunately the skipper who didn’t quite have the field set for those nice variations. Henry was a wall at short cover, plucking the ball one handed on multiple occasions, as we tried to keep a lid on the scoring. Corbyn (0-31) followed his dad from the top end, and showed his pace, beating the bat on multiple occasions in his second over, before the openers really started to up the run rate.

After the first drinks break at 14 overs, Simmo & Isaac were both brought on to try to stem the flow and break the now 100 run opening partnership, but the openers were in cruise control - cover drives, cuts, dabs, pulls and clips. The openers were scoring at will, no matter who bowled - unfortunately a some misfields and a regular ‘four-ball’ meant that we struggled to maintain pressure from either end across the first period of the game.

After 18 overs, the oppo were 125-0, with the skipper left rueing his decision at the toss, and scratching his head as to how were were going to make the breakthrough. Safi had chucked the ball back to Simmo (the bowler) when discussing the plan of action, only to catch Simmo unawares, with the ball comedically hitting Simmo’s Crown Jewels. Maybe that was the wake up call we needed - a meeting of the brains trust followed, and this led to a clearer plan being put in place, and it soon paid dividend. After a couple of tight overs from both Simmo and Isaac, we finally got the breakthrough, as Simmo fired one in, and it could only be spooned to Paul to take the catch at midwicket, the opening stand broken at 138. Barely two balls later, Isaac got in the act, as a nicely flighted delivery was hit straight to Safi at cover - bang bang, both openers were removed and the team huddle suddenly was a little more buoyant, despite the sun now really beating down (141-2 after 24 overs).

The game had certainly changed pace, with some tight overs and Ramsdell rebuilding, Simmo was withdrawn to save some of his overs for the death. Nick R (0-45 returned to finish his spell, whilst Isaac had certainly found a nice rhythm from the other end, as the oppo reached the second drinks break at 160-2 (28 overs). The relatively quiet period didn’t last long as the oppo came out firing, hitting a series of boundaries with Isaac (1-50) being in the firing line straight away, having bowled nicely prior to drinks.

Gisele, Paul and Simmo were given the responsibility of bowling the last 10 overs as Ramsdell looked to post a big score - Paul got a deserved wicket, after building pressure with some dots, was hit to long on where Simmo took an smart catch, returning the favour from earlier in the afternoon. Gisele (0-41) bowled a couple of superb overs when the batters were going big, whilst Simmo (2-49) took his second, cleaning up the no.4 who had reached his 50. Paul (1-29) finished off his superb spell, as the oppo managed to get themselves to 257-4 off their 40 overs with a late flurry.

Probably 20-30 runs more than they should have got but we knew that the pitch was true and the outfield was rapid, so the chase was on. The oppo provided some sandwiches for a much-welcomed match tea, as everyone took on board some much needed fluids.

2nd Innings

Henry and Isaac strode to the middle to face a the experienced Ramsdell bowling attack - both were watchful to start but were quick to punish anything loose. Isaac played a lovely backfoot punch through cover, whilst H whipped a short delivery to midwicket before absolutely creaming an off drive to find his second boundary. The outfield seemed to have gotten even quicker as the sun had dried out the earlier drizzle - with not much pace on the ball, batters had to do the leg work but both batters took minimal risk, yet started to find the boundary with regularity, playing some cracking shots.

In the 7th over, H tucked into the opening bowler, crunching two boundaries down the ground whilst also finding the square leg fence too. The skipper and his dad were padded up and admired every shot, even discussing that H was looking to convert his often positive starts, into a big score. Isaac followed H in upping the rate, striking boundaries to both sides of the wicket, with the 3s very much up with the run rate as we moved past the 10 over mark. The sun wasn’t the only thing that raised the temperature, after a strong appeal for caught behind was waived away, the game took a more competitive turn.

H & Isaac were setting the perfect platform, with Henry bringing up his 50 just before drinks, whilst the change bowlers were not immune to their superb ball striking. After punching another delivery through the covers for 4, Isaac hit consecutive 6s, the first, and absolute monster over square leg that cleared the road and went into the opposite field, leading to a spare ball being called for. He almost lost the spare immediately, getting down on one knee and launching another six down the ground, bringing up the 100 partnership.

Unfortunately just two balls later, Isaac (49) was back in the hutch, chipping the ball back to the bowler, falling one short of a well-deserved half-century. Lizo (0) joined H in the middle, but unfortunately didn’t last the over as was bowled by a good delivery that nipped back through the gate. The skipper frantically made his way to the middle having not had his usual throw downs, as he and H looked to rebuild. Safi didn’t last long though - after multiple plays and misses, the skipper felt the pressure building and tried to reverse said pressure. Unfortunately ‘distinctly average shot’ no.3 of the season meant Safi (0) could only spoon the ball up in the air to point who took the catch.

The 3s were in control at 103-0 after 15 overs, but had slipped to 109-3 after 20 overs, with Henry watching the from the non-strikers, and suddenly we were on the back foot. Vice-skipper Dave strode to the middle, as the experienced batters looked to take the game deep. After a few overs of consolidation, Dave broke the shackles with a trademark flick for 6 over the short legside boundary, as the rate climbed above 9 an over for the first time. The oppo were intent on protecting the boundary at all costs, as the number of ‘ring fielders’ seemed to decrease after every over - in spite of that Dave and H still manage to find the boundary with regularity.

For every boundary, there was probably a play and miss, as this game see-sawed back and forth - we probably felt we needed one big over to really get ahead, but with the very defensive fields set, it was challenging to do so. With 10 overs to go, the RRR was 9.6 per over, and we were setup for a grandstand finish.

Dave managed to clear the ropes a couple more times, finding a special liking to the hedge nearest one of the oppo’s cars, as another spare ball had to be produced. H continued to look imperious, having needed to absorb pressure after the mini-collapse, he had kicked back on, and still was finding the boundaries and running hard - his straight driving particularly was a sight to behold.

Dave reached his 50 in 34th over, with a lovely cut shot to the cover point boundary for 4, and with 5 overs to go, 51 run were required - unfortunately at this point, both Dave and Henry were faced with 9 fielders on the boundary, making that challenge just that bit steeper. A tight 36th over was ended with Dave’s (58) dismissal which was met with loud roars as the competitive atmosphere threatened to boil over.

Henry let none of that distract him - he was a man on a mission. A late cut to the point boundary brought up a simply phenomenal 100 - his limited celebration would not lead you to believe that it was his first career ton. A knock of incredible maturity and leadership, whilst also dealing with a tough environment, not least the scorching heat and a big chase. The skipper was umpiring and after Gisele ran up to congratulate H, the skipper heard H say to Gisele, ‘thank you, but our job is not done’.

Determined to get the team over the line, Gisele and H ran 2s in the blazing heat as boundaries were hard to come by. Giselse then launched a huge 6 over long on, before H, who was setting up on off stump and like Shivnarine Chanderpaul, somehow found two boundaries despite the short side being littered with boundary fielders.

15 runs were required of the final over, and alas it was just a bridge too far, with Ramsdell running out at winners by 10 runs, in an extremely competitive game.

A real tough one to take - the post game debrief reflected on where we could look to improve, with the team acknowledging that we should have been chasing at least 30 runs less than we were, with clearer bowling plans, preparation + no more stupid shots from the skipper, all fair game. We also discussed the positives, as from a chase perspective, other than the 5 overs wobble in the middle, we approached it superbly, with Isaac and Dave both being fantastic foils for H, who’s sensational ton got us so very close. We could not have done much more in such a big chase.

As mentioned in earlier match reports, my number one priority for my team will always be to see 11 cricketers that have enjoyed their day out, have given their all, play with a smile on their face, and play the game in the right spirit. Win, lose or draw, if that’s the case, I will be happy. We are not even halfway through the season, so there is still such a long way to go - we know we can be better, and I know we will show it.

POTM: Henry Schooling - 122* off 123 balls (19x 4s) - a magnificent maiden ton, carrying the team on his back, and absolutely deserved to be on the winning side.

Next week, we stay on the road and travel to league leaders Sherfield. A great opportunity.