On a sunny, autumn afternoon Standard Athletic CC hosted The Embassy for the third time this season. Having won the toss, the opposition’s captain Alan decided to bat first and his decision was justified with Richard and Harry scoring 60 for the first wicket before the former was caught in the slips for 36 off Money. This brought Alister to the crease and he immediately picked up from where Richard left off, frustrating Standard’s bowlers with some stoic defence which was not helped by some sloppy fielding. To SAC’s relief, however, Sachin broke the deadlock by bowling both batters but not before they had put on a 171-run partnership. With Harry departing for a fine century and Alister for 68, BECC were sitting pretty on 250 for 3 with 8 overs remaining. In need of some economical overs, John Hardy (Jean ‘Ardy to his friends) produced the goods for captain Henry, by taking 3 wickets in 2 of his 6 overs to reduce Embassy’s total to 267 for 7 from 40 overs.

Having lost opening bowler Shaunak to a badly sprained ankle at tea, Standard began their innings knowing that a run rate of 7 an over was required if they were going to chase down BECC’s total. Anser and Mani opened up and they soon got up to speed, with some finely timed boundaries mixed in with some solid defence. With the score on 46, however, Anser departed for 29 runs having been caught at slip off the bowling of centurion Harry. Embassy sensed an opening and as SAC’s number 3 strolled out to the middle, Alan decided to reinforce the slips. Praneeth, however, had other ideas and together with Mani they took the score to 154 at drinks. With the deficit now reduced to just over a hundred runs with 20 overs remaining, Embassy desperately needed a wicket and that is exactly what they got when Mani was caught for 79 off Alan’s bowling straight after tea. This brought Thodi to the crease and with support from Praneeth the two batters took Standard to victory in fine fashion, chasing down 267 runs from just 30 overs!

The result – an 8-wicket victory for Standard Athletic CC