Jags 161/3 (Baines 66*, Parrish 34, Threadgold 27*, Chauhan 1-10) lost to Histon 163-4 (O'Sullivan 101*, Leach 18*, Naseri 3-21) by 6 wickets.
Man of the Match - Naseri/Baines
Another season draws to a close, as it should, by us playing Histon at Histon in the August sunshine (i.e. it gets dark quickly). This has been a nice traditional end of season fixture for us for the last 5 years or so, and it tends to bring out the spectators and some of the Histon big guns, with some great performances and moments for a friendly fixture. I recall a Liam wonder caught and bowled, and Parrish blazing it all round the place, and William Kingsmill doing ball on a string things, and me and Kris Jones rolling back the years in an opening partnership of 50 one year and no doubt other moments of a similar ilk. As I say, despite it being a friendly, stuff tends to happen.
This year was no exception on a batting friendly dry as the Sahara deck that most, other than me, made to look like it was suitable for batting. Histon chose to bring their Australian overseas player and several Onyx 1 first team regulars, because you know, they're an actual village with a massive roster of players to choose from. They probably even had a selection committee and used a special app to select the team and debated the merits of a balanced line-up. Our team selection was more in line with a friendly and followed the time honoured way I have chosen players, chuck a poll on WhatsApp, hope I get XI, and anyone who is available is in irrespective of talent. We welcomed Cob for his first game of the season as Mr Ranjit, and also saw several (un)friendly faces in the opposition ranks that are normally Jags, notably Mr Meldal (fresh off A-Level results) and B Savage as captain.
Jags won the toss (top work Skip!), crucial in August, and got going with about 7 players having actually turned up. Parrish and Baines started at pace, with 10 from the first, 8 from the second and 9 from the third. I recall Parrish fencing a ball Joe Root style to 3rd man quite deliberately, and a late wide cut (good to see that back in the locker). The fifth over went for a frankly insane, 23 runs with Parrish absolutely murdering ball after ball, mostly behind square for a change to race along to 30 odd pretty quickly. Baines was doing his thing and clubbed a couple of 4's down the ground off on an on side. Parrish fell LBW, and it was so plumb he almost walked before the umpire had given it.
Gogia joined things for a bit, and Histon brought on Mr Overseas to bowl (O'Sullivan) and Mr Onyx 1 (Chauhan) to bowl - so it was tough to score. Baines was not intimated, but Gogia fell to a ripper that flattened off stump. I joined Baines for a bit and rotate strike to try and get him hitting it as much as possible. I've not really faced bowling of this quality for many a year and I was befuddled what to do with it other than poke and prod and try and let the big man have a go. Thoroughly in, Baines went mega in the eleventh over, hitting 18 runs, including a mega six straight and a four pulled to square to, I think get his 50. I'd been a pretty scratchy second fiddle up to this point, mainly I hasten to add as the bowling was really far too good for the likes of me, and I got my first slightly nicer one, juicy and outside off, but was late on it, and edged it gently to Mr Meldal. It had to be him...
Threadgold took my place and was on it from the get go, hitting lovely 4's to the offside, on side, and getting his old 7 iron out and demonstrating where he has been spending most of his time. These two really accelerated at the end, giving no respect to the bowling, 4's all round the ground and Baines finishing with a straight hit 6 last ball. It may be the last time we see Baines for a while for the Jags, but as ever it was pure fireworks. Even on a batting friendly pitch, 161 was a good total and easily defensible, if we could but field and catch and things. Histon had helped us with their own fielding disaster class, Freddie not moving his feet towards easy catches, some of the younger players trying to field on the boundary 1 handed, and most of the field being reluctant to stop the ball.
Histon opened with Freddie, and the overseas Aussie - Freddie was keen to bat and then go off and celebrate by drinking alcopops with his A-Level chums before he starts his Gap Yah. O'Sullivan showed his class early with a clipped of the pads from Brett for 6, which threatened the playground. He just eased into it, no power needed just pure timing.
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Naseri got Meldal first ball, chipped high to Baines. This was my personal high point of the match as it meant that, despite being absolutely rubbish with the bat, I had scored more than him. He sprinted from the field to get a shower in and head off to the Regal to drink bright coloured horrors and dance badly to terrible music.
The next ball got a second wicket with a proper rare wicket. Chauhan tried to clip it, it went off a top edge low and with lots of spin, it landed in front of the stumps and the backspin caused it to rotate back and dislodge the bails. Naseri was on a hat-trick, we brought the field in, in raw anticipation, and he did the most hilarious thing possible, pitching it wide wide down the legside, to concede 3 legside wides - on a hat trick ball. The Aussie hit the next ball for an effortless legside 6 just to remind everyone that wickets weren't the only thing that was happening.
Brett almost extracted him next over, seeing it hit high to the off side, but Gogia put the chance down. He then hit 3 4's in 4 balls just to emphasise how costly this drop would be. Naseri bowled well, economic and solid. Chirp was mediocre at best, maybe we were all taking the highlight of our season a touch too seriously. Matt was solid behind the stumps and Cob reminded us all of his fielding prowess.
O'Sullivan hit another monster 6, and Naseri extracted the other guy, who tried to play a cute light cut, but just guided it to the gloves of Parrish to finish on 3 well deserved wickets (he absolutely bottled the hat trick mind). Ranjit joined the bowling attack, and his first over was pretty cute, low scoring and tricky. He also saw Mr O'Sullivan shelled by Mr Threadgold at straight long off, which also went to 4. In truth his was one of those easy chances that should always be gobbled up. The low sun this time of year meant fielders on one side of the field were having a tough old time of it seeing anything.
Holmes took an end and removed a batsman with an absolute peachy peach of a ball, left arm over, moving across the right hander, and plucking off stump from the ground. Unfortunately this meant the Aussie enforcer, who I was later told quite liked left arm bowling, hit 3 consecutive 6's and a 4 from Mr Holmes.
Sabin's next over was one for the ages. Having bowled a decent first over he got a mega case of the yips, bowling head height no balls, on four occasions, one so high it almost cleared the keeper for eventful 16 run over featuring 10 extras. The Aussie was really in now, and having been dropped twice, was not about to let us get away with a 3rd, he took a shine to Baines, then Gogia, cantering to 101* off 49 balls. The game was won at this point, so it was just a case of how many balls it would take.
Amardin's mate Mohammed was brought in and bowled an eventful over, which thanks to some generous umpiring only went for 4 runs. Leach was less than impressed, and even more so perhaps as Mohammed went down as Sawyer in the scoring, his arch nemesis.
Leach eventually dragged them home from Baines' bowling. We lost the game, partially as we dropped the man who got 100 twice that I can recall, and most of our fielding, Cob excepted, was a little slapdash. Still, fun, and we won the moral victory by bringing just regular players of friendly cricket to a friendly, and no overseas imports.
We cheered the assembled spectators as we left the ground and people retired to the Red Lion in Histon for some refreshment. The Aussie joined up, we even bought him a beer, and then he saw Savage and I buy a treat of ham egg and chips for dinner and less than politely enquired as to whether that qualified as an actual human meal.
So the season ends. I'll draft some more content in the coming days summarising the season. We won more than we lost, new recruits and familiar faces. Japes and scrapes and plenty of stories. As it should be.
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