Report by Daniel Mortlock:
Making good use of a tricky pitch with variable bounce, our opening attack of Daniel Mortlock (1/16) and Stephan van Eeden (1/15) had the NCI top order on the back foot from ball one, Stephan in particular impressing with his consistent outswing. With great support from the close-in fielders such as Nathan Wright and Huw Davies, and Andy Owen keeping wicket for the first time since 2017, it seemed we were on for a classic Romsey strangle. What runs did come seemed to be mainly through thick outside edges, but when Stephen finally and deservedly got a proper nick and it was brilliantly snaffled by Daniel diving low to his left at first slip, it was surely a sign that it was going to be our day. Adi Vaidynathan (0/5) looked set to continue the good work, and even when yet another thick edge pierced the field, NCI's score was only 38/2 in the 17th over - they surely still had all the work to do to post a decent total. Except it was at this point that the players shook hands and walked off the pitch.
The reason was, sadly, that NCI had won by 8 wickets and, as well as we'd bowled, it had all been a bit pointless as it was in defense of a "total" of 37 all out. There's no real story to tell of our innings - it was just a case of everything going right for NCI and wrong for us. Their opening bowlers, who returned combined figures of 14 overs, 5 maidens, 7/20, certainly bowled well, both gaining considerable in-swing; but this also induced a number of leg-side wides - 12 of the above runs came in this form. There were also a couple of catches that on most days would have gone to ground (a toe-eneded drive that flew to slip and a chance that reached the fielder just inches off the ground but was still taken despite the fact that, in an effort to protect his recently dislocated finger, he took the ball on the wrist before holding the rebound) and a ball that seamed in from two feet outside off-stump to hit middle, making a mockery of what looked like a sensible leave. About the closest thing we made to a recovery was when, from 24/7, Nathan Wright (9 off 19 balls, and the only batsman to score more than 2) and Faruk Kara (1* off 23 balls, hence surviving longer than anyone else) seemed to play the change bowlers quite comfortably, but it (obviously) didn't last.
That left our last-wicket pair of Faruk and Andy Owen in essentially the same situation they faced against NCI in 2016. Back then they took our total from 42/7 (we had just nine players) to 86/7 in 19 overs of dogged batting, and this was a sufficiently challenging target that NCI limped over the line 9-down. If they could manage something comparable today then we had the bowling to do something similar. And when the third ball Andy faced was a leg-side full toss, it seemed he'd be able to get off the mark with his workhorse pull shot . . . but somehow he top-edged the ball into his visor, from where it rococheted into the hands of the square-leg fielder. The ball also drove Andy's glasses into the bridge of his nose - fortunately, the damage was cosmetic only - but it really was adding injury to insult.
The tea wasn't ready at this point, so the game just continued; but when we did finally have what had become a post-match meal the mood was pretty subdued. And, with some reason. A check of the club records reveals today's "effort" has nestled itself into some pretty unwelcome spots: our second lowest first innings ("beaten" only by the time we were bowled out for 23 in 1987) and our third lowest total overall; our third slowest first innings and our fifth slowest innings overall; and, with NCI having 142 balls left in their innings when they hit the winning runs, it was the fifth "easiest" chase against us. All pretty dismal, sure . . . but more important is the way we responded to our batting debacle: as stated above, we bowled and fielded brilliantly, and even though we were never going to win, we forced NCI to work hard for their victory: their chase was the sixth slowest opposition chase in any Romsey league game. If we can play like that next week then it will be a different story . . .