Ealing CC vs Ickenham CC

The game was played with the following rules

Each innings starts on 200
Each pair bats for 4 overs
Each bowler bowls 2 overs each
'No balls' and 'wides' give away 2 runs respectively
Lose 5 runs for each wicket
'No balls' and 'wides' are not rebowled except in the last over

Captain - Arun Gupta
Wicket-keeper - Lucas Smith / Jamie Porter-Thomas

The Ealing boys travelled to Hanwell for a home fixture against Ickenham. The game started slightly late following the fact that the Ickenham boys initially travelled to Corfton Road even though I sent the club detailed instructions on how to reach Ealing Hanwellians. When they did turn up, Arun G, our captain for the day won the toss and elected to bowl. Ickenham posted a competitive total of 298/8. When we went out to field, there was some promising moments. The boys are now constantly walking in as the bowler is running in. Catches were being taken which included the catch of the season so far from Arun G at square leg. The batsman pulled the ball out from the middle of the bat, which Arun G dived to his right and clutched onto. There were some neat run outs which included direct hit's from Aidan B and Lucas SA. So all in all, the fielding was good. Some of the bowling was a bit short which allowed their boys to wack the ball to the square leg boundary, but generally our boys now know where they need to pitch the ball and can do it. Its just a matter of getting that consistency. Jamie PT, Zuhayr K, Arvin S and Lucas Sm all obtained 1 wicket each.

Chasing a stiff target, the boys gave it a good go finishing on 271/7, and therefore losing by 27 runs. We ultimately lost too many wickets from straight balls and the running between the wickets was not as good as it has been in previous games. We suffered three needless run outs. A moment to savour with the bat was seeing Tayyab M play a text book cover drive to the boundary for four. There were also some good pull shots played that showed our boys can dispatched bad balls away to the boundary. All in all, the boys enjoyed themselves and there were some good moments to cherish. Onwards and upwards