KING'S ROAD CRICKET AND SOCIAL CLUB

MATCH REPORT – A Sham-pagne innings was De Silva lining for the Road as they failed to stop the press in Dulwich

Full Scorecard: http://kingsroadcsc.play-cricket.com/website/results/3678122

A classy 63 not out from Shaminda de Silva was the standout score in the King’s Road total of 169 against the Sunday Times.

Any sort of defensible total looked unlikely when drinks were taken after 20 overs with the Orange Caps having scored just 38.

Miserly bowling by Olly Lee and Greg Struthers saw openers Matt Small and James Pinkney forced to dig in and defend.

A change of bowling brought the breakthrough, with Small bowled for 9 – shortly followed by Adam Paterson for a duck.

At 17-2 became 24-3 as Pinkney was caught for 8, bringing David Hughes to the crease to join De Silva.

Hughes could barely hit the ball off the square but the pair survived until drinks and, suitably refreshed, the Welshman played a waft outside off stump and nicked it to the slip for 3 after chewing up 20 balls.

Jamie Keating joined Sham in the middle to kickstart the innings, with the skipper knocking it around nicely until he was caught for 10.

Things really got moving when John Pinkos decided to throw the bat after a quite start, blasting a succession of boundaries – including a contentious 6 – before being bowled for 28.

Matt Andrews was promoted up the order to continue the onslaught…but was bowled for a duck.

But with Sham also starting to find the boundary, Mo Shaboodien joined in the fun with a quickfire 21, including a glorious six.

The Orange Caps’ fightback added 131 to the total in the 20 overs after drinks and the bowlers had something to work with as King’s Road took to the field.

Pinkos (8-0-22-1) and Small (5-0-19-0) opened up and kept things tight as Sunday Times put on 52 for the first wicket.

After that King’s Road kept chipping away with Shaboodien (8-1-18-2) the pick of the bowlers, claiming two wickets including a sharp caught-and-bowled which saw him leap like a salmon during his follow-through.

There were also wickets for Pinkos – aided by a catch from Small – Andrews (6-0-24-1), Rossi – (4-0-34-1) and Isham (4-0-23-1) as The Road made life difficult for the Sunday Times.

But with the journalists closing in on victory, the Orange Caps needed wickets – and Keating made the inspired decision to throw the ball to Pinkney.

His first delivery was a peach, clipping the top of off stump and prompting the question to the Skipper: “Why didn’t you bring him on earlier?”

That question was answered the very next ball as Pinkney sent the ball straight to the boundary, with neither batsman nor fielders able to do anything about it – five wides, victory to the Sunday Times with three wickets in hand and the best .

In the space of two deliveries – only one of them legal – Pinkney had managed to capture both the Champagne moment and the embarrassing moment awards to finish with figures of 0.1-0-5-1.

Sham celebrated his well-earned man-of-the-match status by buying a jug – cheers – and the tantrum award was inevitably won by club skipper Chris Brown, who was presumably furious at missing out on free beer.

Oscar Newlove

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