Match drawn against Stevenage III

On a hot day in Stevenage on a council pitch as picturesque as Tahrir square stand in captain Mark Raine lost the toss "tails never fails" Andy Milner and Matt Scales predicted, Stevenage III XI captain Kevin "bowl all day" Fisher choose to bat because he knew he had Pankaj Bhagat at three.

The 2nd's had another new look bowling attack with Tom Watson and Ajay Thakur. Ajay bowled with his normal accuracy and did not have the same luck he had the week before until he bowled a lovely full toss which the opener Brown hit to Brendan who took a neat catch. His excellent spell kept us in the game on a hard pitch with an outfield made of glass where anything past the fielder was four a great spell of bowling 10,6,20,1

Tom's first run out in the second's started with real fire and he could have had either of the opener's out in the first two over's, unfortunately his radar went off line as he tried to impress and had to be removed from the attack only to come back later and show his form with two wicket's in an over. Tom will do well in the second until the end of the season.

Now with Bhagat at the crease the scoreboard looked more like a fruit machine as he started to smash Andy Milner, Matt Scales and Waheed Mahroof to all corners and looked odd's on to score a very quick century.

Brendan Lindsey into the attack and his sweet little in ducker's sent the ringer packing !! At this point the game changed again with Stevenage not able to get the ball off the square and Lindsey taking advantage with four good wickets and figures of 8.4,2,35,4. and very much the pick of the bowling.

A late flurry got Stevenage to 241-7 declared from 49 overs and Fisher thought that would see them home.

Captain Raine was convinced his batting line-up had enough firepower to chase down 241 and did not expect 6-11 to bat. It started slowly and both Rory and Ajay struggled to piece a tight field and this brought their downfall trying a little too hard and both were caught playing pressure shoots.

That brought Vish Rathi and Raz Khan to the crease and they were starting to hit the bad balls when on came Bhagat and immediately hit Raz on his upper leg above his pad. With a mumbled appeal the home umpire was up like the lightening expected to threaten the game. It looked harsh and may have been harsh, no DRS on this council pitch so he had to go.

Vish and Raine talked about consolidation and trying to get to 200 in 45 over before launching an assault and the plan was going well and even better when Bhagat had to leave at 18:30 thinking his work was done. With Raine rotating the strike to inform Vish the scoreboard started to move and the opposition were starting to panic.

Fisher requested a sub fielder and Raine suggested it would be bad form as none of the players were injured just a guy going to work had left the field but the decline feel on deaf ears as Fisher was desperate to stop the rot.

Raine thought he was seeing the ball well enough to start to take on the non spinning spinner and smashed the ball straight for what he though was six. Long off ran round and took a good catch on the line, but then what was obvious to Raine and Vish is that he took three steps backwards over the line and then still claimed the catch. After a polite enquire and the little or no help from the home umpire Raine walked but was not amused.

Raine was still not concerned with Waheed strutting to the square only to see him walk back shortly afterwards again a bad looking LBW.

Vish now tried to push on and was catch by the sub fielder for an excellent 83.

Could the tail stop Stevenage from winning and take maximum points well it was very close with Neil and Matt hanging on to get us to 196-9 and fifteen points a well earned draw.

As excellent performance from all the guys who stepped up a grade, from the Ramadan boys and Vish for his maiden 2nd team 50.

So if Bhagat had not played we would have won easily and I guess that's cricket in Hertfordshire.