Mulched by the Maths

Madingley Mulch (120/5, Manju 24*, Bennett 2-17) beat the Jags (117/6, Parrish 37, Mailes 23, Ruwan 3-13) by 3 runs

Man of the Match - Parrish

I've started a new job which means I haven't had time with the match reports, and this is a few weeks out of synch - so it will be abbreviated and just contain the bits I can piece together from the darker recesses of my 41 year old brain.

The thing that most sticks in the mind about this game is the fact that nothing added up. We were at Queens, looking to get back to high scoring fun and japes. Madingley Mulch won the toss (a theme recently) and wisely decided to bat and put on 120.

Except that they clearly didn't. The batting column in the book says they scored 103. The bowling column in the book says they scored 103. This includes extras. There aren't 120 runs in the book except in the totals column. I'm never going to accuse anyone of cheating without proof, and they seemed like nice fellas, but this just didn't add up, by a massive massive amount. Ah well, we don't want to get promoted anyway.

How to make GCSE maths really hard

I remember Brett and Bennett opening the bowling for us, Brett was doing his classic, too good at bowling to actually get wickets. Weather was nice. Bennett was angry, and the fielding was mostly good. Scoring was very slow to start with, Bennett got one caught by Dan at mid on I think (and he tried to fumble it a lot) and he also bowled one, I think it was top of off with pace, but it is a few weeks ago. Brett plundered on, and honestly I think half of Bennett's wickets are down to Brett. 

Boud, Yaxley and Savage had a bowl. Scoring was still super slow, and Boud had one almost maiden that involved a ripper of a bowled one with one run conceded in the over. Savage kept things interesting and also conceded 2 runs off an over. The scoreboard jumped from 40 to 69 in these two overs. Parrish walked over to the sidelines and politely enquired how 3 runs in 2 overs had pushed the scoring up by 30 odd, and they went to adjust the scoreboard, but only took 9 off. I'm guessing this was when the calculator broke.

Morgs bowled nicely, I recall Boud dropping two catches, and the fielding getting a bit ragged. Barker caught one from Morgs, and Ben Savage threw down the stumps for a nice run out. Parrish did things behind the stumps, they had one partnership, which oddly enough was between two gentleman who are both called Manju. 120/5, not a bad total to face at our home ground, and we'd feel confident with Mailes and Parrish opening the batting.

Scoring was very slow to start with, the bowling that I remember was very good, more spin than I have seen in an evening and the fielding was good. Light drew in quickly, and we were probably well behind the rate initially. Chris was struggling to score and playing some gorgeous pre Bazball Test Match on Day 3 strokes. Matt took his time, but then start punching to the deep and eventually fell bowled for 37 having upped his strike rate to over 120. Threadgold joined Chris, and Chris shortly thereafter perished going to cow for a 4. Fielding was pretty top notch all round at this point.

The wicket keeper had a broken finger. Did I mention that? He still batted and got 20 odd, kept for 10 overs or so and then decided to have a bowl as I walked out. I'm having an absolute fucker of a season on a personal basis, but the ball that he got me with would have cleaned me up at any time in my life on any form. My first golden duck that I can recall (I have plenty of ducks, dear reader, but this is my first genuinely shiny golden one that I can recall). 

Phillips joined Threadgold and did Phillips things - running hard and Dan eventually fell stumped. I'm going to blame Phillips, mainly as I can't remember seeing this one. Phillips and Barker pushed the scoring hard, Phillips was run out, Barker was caught - and Barker had us very very close at the end as he'd kept the scoring rate high, skipping out of his crease. Brett and Boud were left with the last few balls task, which no one envies, and we didn't quite get home. 

Everyone shook hands and they seemed nice bunch, the book made no sense, and we technically lost, but I'm pretty sure we actually won comfortably. Cricket is a funny old game. I'm going to suggest that none of their number try accountancy out as a career. Red Cow was well attended, but we were too late for pizza.