Addiscombe grab thrilling draw versus Old Wimbledonians

Match report by Rikky Mano

This week the 4XI played an away game at Old Wimbledonians. The 4XI lost the toss and Old Wimbledonians elected to field. Steve and Jon opened and runs came on the board quickly. Throughout the first innings the rain wouldn’t stop, making it very hard for the batsman to play on the wet pitch.

This didn’t stop Jon as he went on to hit a great 50 once again but soon got out for a good 51. Rikky came in at 3, playing some good shots and slowly building a partnership with the opener Steve. Unfortunately, right after drinks break, Steve was caught at mid- on and was gone for 12. Then Pete came in at 4 looking very solid with great shots to start off with. Later their opening bowler struck once again taking the wicket of Rikky by hitting the middle stump and he was gone for a quick 17.

Brandon came in at 5 but had only scored 1 before he was unluckily given out. At 6 was Vivek who played marvellously with fantastic shots putting the pressure on the opposition and really building up our score. He had a great innings and scored 29 not out. Some confusion between the two batsman Jamie and Vivek which sadly lead to the end of Jamie who was looking solid . Mano came in next when the team’s total was low and put runs on the board having the 3rd highest score of the innings with 25 but was bowled by a great ball. Aaron came in briefly before Jon declared the innings so he was 1 not out. The 4XI put on a decent total of 174.

After tea Addiscombe took the field and Mano and Aaryan opened the bowling. Mano started off well, taking the opening bat LBW and the Addiscombe started off great with 0-1. Then Aaryan bowled good areas and got a well-deserved wicket, taking the other opener. It was going great for Addiscombe until the opposition had started a comeback with one batsman scoring over 50 runs.

Danny and Rikky bowled was the first change of bowling. Danny bowled consistent but he couldn’t seem to grab any wickets but finished off with an economical 0-17 off 6 overs. Rikky had replaced Mano but couldn’t bowl right areas so was punished quite a lot but picked up two lucky wickets including the high scorer by a fantastic catch by Pete Murphy on the leg-side boundary. Rikky finished with 2-30 off 7 overs. Aaron bowled the best he has bowled this season making it hard for the batsmen and unluckily missed a chance of a wicket.

Every over the match got closer and closer and Mano was put back on to try take some wickets. Over on the other side, Vivek bowled excellently picking up a wicket. With 12 runs needed off 12 balls Mano got two wickets in a row on the second to last over but couldn’t quite end the match with a hat-trick. All the pressure was on Vivek as it was 6 runs needed of 6 balls...and he did what the team needed.

Vivek bowled a tight line and the opposition couldn’t get the six runs they needed but also we couldn’t quite get the last wicket we needed. With the last ball to bowl, if they hit a 3 or more they would have won, a 2 to tie and if we got a wicket we would have won. In the end, the batsman hit it back to Vivek for no run so it ended a draw. For Addiscombe it was a “losing draw” as they had a slightly better run rate.

It was a great game of cricket and we did really well with a very young team.

A big thanks to Danny for scoring and Gavin taking up his free time to umpire for a whole day.