First of all, apologies for the neglect of this Captain’s blog. Under Raju’s regime it was well used, well written and quite funny. Raju’s passion for cricket strategy was hot on the agenda – he was on a mission to find the perfect cricketing set up with batting orders and bowling line ups… His own little Nirvana.

Well, after tonight’s exciting match I thought it was about time to spark it up again.

With the risk of souding a bit like a doddering old dad, I have to say fellas- I was very proud of everyone – without exception –  (except maybe for myself with a 2nd duck of the season!) – even proud of Leon, Shermy, JK , Tony Swann and Raju for turning up to support.

Everyone contributed to the match in some shape or form – like a well oiled machine. I’ve never seen Cocken run so fast and dive for a ball in the field, nor run for another batter. Luckily for us Tom B was on excellent form, despite his injury, making an excellent 88 not out. His partnership with Shailesh got us nicely on the right foot. After a minor (or major, depends how you look at it) batting collapse with the next 4 batsmen only scoring 2 runs between them (actually that sounds pretty major), Smith, Barnes and Glover saved the day by batting through to the end, with some great hitting in the last 5 overs with Matt G scoring 22 not out, off 14 balls, giving us a total of 146.

The fielding and bowling was legendary. Couldrey nailed a great catch off Shailesh’s first ball (a perfectly planned full toss on leg side… hmmm) with the help of  his zip top. Matt Small caught another great catch off Shailesh’s bowling and bowled well, bagging a wicket in his 4 overs and keeping the economy down. De Silva’s marvelous “floaters” confounded the slogging batsmen for an over or two until they got the hang of him, only to get a top edge to be safely caught by Glover. Sham was robbed of a stumping as well, even if I do say so myself (he was miles out, man… are you blind?!) Glover’s bowling was great to watch,(even if the low ones did knock me off my feet whilst keeping wicket). He thoroughly deserved the 2 wickets in his 4 overs… 2 crucial wickets I might add, with the off stump sailing majestically through the air.

Jeremy, our Kiwi new boy, was given the daunting task of keeping the runs down in the final overs and did well bagging a wicket and only going for 10 runs in the last 2 overs. MacNicol was lively in the field and Dan Howard’s first game for a couple of years found him bowling the last over … and he only conceded 5 runs.

A great team performance, with Tommy B and Matty G providing the runs –  J.K coming on for the injured Barnes showed total commitment in the field and Amir saved the scoring nightmare by coming to the rescue with the scorebook.

What I think I’m trying to say is, that despite of getting out first ball (again..!), which is an awful awful feeling … you all cheered me up no end by playing your hearts out and getting a great win tonight. Those Thundering Thespians are a good side – it was a good win, and took all the pain away.

Thank you fellas – it was a privilidge and a joy to Captain the team today!

Here’s to the next victory … on Saturday!