Hayes 3rd XI – Runs galore on the Meadow

Traffic on Barnet Wood Road delayed the start which left skipper Colin Couldrey without his blazer for the toss, but this didn’t impact his luck, and he won the toss and elected to bat on a flat pitch on a warm Saturday. Having decided that today was a good day to bat 4 opener Adam Greenway decided to hand the opening spot to Joe Bradshaw who had recovered from his ankle injury to partner Matt Warne, who had decided that Greenway was mad to give up an opening spot.

Warne made hay whilst the sun shone and set about the Bexleyheath bowling attack with Bradshaw, who was striking the ball as hard as his former WWE namesake -hitting a Clothesline from Hell. Having put 71 on for the first wicket Bradshaw could feel a little unlucky to top edge one into the calm hands of square leg departing for a well scored 37 (35). This brought new addition Pulkit Verma to the crease, who was looking to put his good performance at training into success on the pitch. Warne and Verma put on 51 for the second wicket with Warne also passing 50 himself before a sharp direct hit did for him.

Runs continued to flow and another 50 plus stand (74) was put on by Verma and Greenway with Pulkit also passing his 50, before Greenway was dismissed by a very good piece of fielding from Harikiran Gayatri, running backwards off his own bowling. Thistleton and Johnny Wilkie joined Pulkit and looked to add impetus to the innings and together they pushed Hayes to a total of 259-4 of 40 overs which felt at the break slightly over par but would require a good bowling performance from Hayes.

Hayes opening bowlers kept it somewhat tight on a very batting friendly pitch and it was Isabel Steet who this season made her debut for Hertfordshire Women, got the first breakthrough, getting one to move sharply off the seam to draw a false shot snaffled by Verma. Steet was unlucky not to get a second later in her spell with what felt like a costly drop off a tough chance by the Hayes keeper. The Bexleyheath number 3 and their young opener Atharva Kolvankar kept the score ticking over but never really got on top of the run rate. Dammika Silva, picked up an injury during his bowling spell but soldiered on doing what he could. At the drinks break, the call went out and a hero was found on the sidelines. Johnny Wilkie’s dad James (Jamie to his friends) rushed to his car to get his spikes, borrow a white shirt and sacrificed a pair of his cream jeans (rumour has it he changed his outfit before coming to the game, which feels like kismet in hindsight) replaced the injured Dammika as a 12^th man. Jamie, made numerous stops in the field and in what became a tight game potentially his involvement was pivotal. Thank you again for stepping in.  

As the scoreboard ticked over, the game was on a knife edge. Just when it felt like Bexleyheath were going to completely run away with it. Wilkie produced a delivery that beat the bat and the Bexleyheath captain Harikiran Gayatri who had batted well up until that point slipped out of his ground and failed to remake it being stumped for 95 (92). As is often the way with cricket, one brought two and the Matt ‘The Burglar’ Warne bowled the Bexleyheath number 4. Kolvankar then hit his maiden century in what had been a really disciplined knock the left hander had played some nice shots and put away bad balls and much like Moore in the first game of the season probably didn’t deserve to lose the game.

Having completed his century, Kolvankar hit the ball down to Verma at long on. Having run the first one hard, Verma caught the young batter out with a bullet arm from the deep, to the keeper’s end and despite shouts from his teammates on the sideline he was run out 102 (100) and the balance of the game finally felt like it had shifted back toward Hayes.

Captain Couldrey brought himself back into the attack and took a wicket after a sharp bit of glove work and quick thinking from Millard behind the sticks for Hayes. The batter having originally been in his ground over balanced onto the line and with no bails left to dislodge the keeper pulled the stump out of the ground to enact the dismissal. As the run rate climbed, Warne took a wicket with the last ball of the innings and left Bexleyheath 10 short of their total. Hayes got over the line but discussions after the game pointed for a number of drops which could have been costly, as room for improvement.

Race night at the club meant that there was once again no ‘presso’, the author may start a protest campaign for their reinstatement in if this trend continues. PotM, from a neutral perspective could well go to A. Kolvankar however as this is a Hayes CC post I will pick from the Hayes ranks. Although Warnie did get a 50 and burgled a couple of late wickets. Pulkit Verma for his 82* (85) a sharp catch and run out of the dangerman pips him to the honour.

Next week, the 3s travel to College Meadows to take on a high flying Old Elthamians 1^st XI .

Notable performances:

H(K)CC:

1. Verma 82* (85) 1 catch and 1 run out.
2. Warne 52 (66) 2 wickets

Jamie Wilkie 12^th man heroics

BHCC:

1. Kolvankar 102 (100) 1 catch
2. Gayatri 95 (92) 1 catch and 2 wickets