14/06/2026
Still no league defeats for either Senior side after a welcome return for the sun following last Saturday's washout and lots of rain midweek. Throw in a record breaking bowling performance and it was a pretty decent day once again for the club.
The 1st team made the trip to Brill and on winning the toss chose to bowl. After the recent wet weather the pitch was very slow and mostly pretty low, making attacking play difficult. Although we didn't make an early breakthrough, and had a very confident appeal for a catch behind turned down, we were able to exert real pressure by squeezing the run rate and getting through our overs quickly. The opening wicket finally came with our hosts only on 25 in the 14th over. Dharmendra Patel tempted the opening bat into a loose shot which was juggled then eventually held by Ash Patel at backward point. Another dismissal soon occurred but the key wicket came with the score on 46 when the other opener who had scored 31 (despite repeatedly playing and missing some big attempted drives) edged to wide slip where Gavin Paulse made a superb diving catch. From there the innings began to fold rather rapidly. Dharma ripped out the middle order with a hat-trick, although the last victim of the trio was unlucky to be seen off by his own umpire for an alleged edge to the wicketkeeper. With the league moving to the win / loss / draw format we were able keep our bowlers on for a maximum of 15 overs, and Dharma just kept picking up wickets so we kept him on - taking the first 8 to leave Brill on 63 for 8. Just as we thought he was on the verge of the rarest of feats Thomas Patel ruined the fun by daring to bowl a straight one that the batter played all around. But still Dharma came again to grab yet another victim and finish with the astounding figures of 14.5 overs, 5 maidens, 9 for 38. In the modern era of records held fully in play-cricket (going back 15 or so years) no one had taken more than 7 wickets in an innings for BACCC so this underlines how special the performance was. A reward for incredible consistency in line and length, with a few variations thrown in occasionally just to keep the batters guessing.
The result was seemingly a formality after we made a a half century opening partnership in our reply, Safeer Ahmed eventually clipping a full toss to midwicket to depart for 35 (39 balls, 6x4). We then lost our way somewhat, Jonny Patel hitting a first ball 6 and getting caught attempting the same second ball, and then Brill resident Liam Smith falling for his third duck of the season with all his in-laws watching. Gavin Paulse remained a reassuring presence, unbeaten on 24 (42 balls, 3x4) and the result was never really in doubt. Ben Sjoberg, also on 3 ducks for the season, prodded around nervously for 10 balls before launching a straight 6 on to the grass bank to take us to victory in style. We passed our target with 4 wickets down, in just 17.3 overs. Just in time to enjoy an excellent, old school cricket tea before heading back to watch the 2nds at home.
In a top of the table clash the 2nd XI were hosting Cublington 2nds at Church Lane. On another low bouncing pitch our visitors made a solid start, reaching 41 without loss. But then lost 3 wickets in the space of 4 runs. A couple of decent partnerships took the away side to 90 before losing their fourth wicket then to 130. However, we then tore through the lower order as 130 for 4 became 140 for 9 from the maximum of 42 overs that Cublington could bat. The wickets were shared out between Kris Greig (3 for 30 off 11 overs), Tom Walker (3 for 46 off 14) and Casey Bobrick Dawson (2 for 44 off 12) but the highlight was undoubtedly wicketkeeper Max Mariscotti throwing himself full length down the legside to catch a genuine leg glance from the visitors' best batter in his outstretched left hand.
We also made a decent start to our innings, reaching 28 without loss, before both openers were removed by the time we were on 36. With some accurate bowling and the lack of bounce we struggled to get the run rate to the required level. When Lewis Richards was bowled for 15 (31 balls, 1x4) we needed 80 more at 4.5 runs per over and we started to think about drawing to stop our opponents getting full points and closing the gap on us any further than was necessary. We could have been more pro-active to put pressure on the Cublington bowlers but after Casey Dawson was pinned leg before for 22 (51 balls, 2x4) we were never going to get to our target. It was left to Jack Patel and Kris Greig to block out the remaining overs to leave us on 92 for 6 from our 38 overs.
