Sunday XI v Kensington 28th May 2018

At the fifth time of asking M & B finally got off the mark as they beat their good friends from Kensington, in warm sunny conditions at Bray, by 52 runs, on Monday. Skipper Armstrong had no hesitation in batting as he won the toss. As per the previous day Sean Phillips-Williams was tasked with manning the bridge with Benny Howard alongside, despite both of them have been up most of the night drinking. Despite this they got M & B off to a good start, albeit with Howard suffering whilst running between the wickets, against a lively opening Kensington attack. Sean as always was solid in defence and good on the drive and flick through leg mainly, although he was fluent all round the wicket. Howard was fluent on the drive and the dab through the off-side. Elliott made the first breakthrough for Kensington but it didn't come until the 10th over, when Howard was yorked for 15 and just had the energy to walk off the field. The opening partnership had yielded 45 and more importantly had taken up 10 overs. Gunbarul came in at first drop as Ben Ward was still asleep on his coach at home, recovering from the previous night's drinking session. Gunbarul was happy to play himself, although he rotated the strike regularly as the left tight combination affected the bowlers lines. Both batsmen ticked the scoreboard over with any bad balls usually dispatched to the boundary. At drinks at the halfway stage M & B were 88 with only one wicket down. Tharakan was introduced into the attack and the batsmen took a while to adjust to his speed and bounce, generated from such a short run up. Tharakan made the next breakthrough has Gunbarul tried to hit him over the top only to hold out to mid off for a well compiled 31. The partnership garnered a handy 77 runs in 16 overs, to leave M & B well placed at 122 for 2. There then followed a period of inertia as new batsmen Callieu struggled to get the ball away and had difficulty in playing the pace of Tharakan and the nagging accuracy of Kensington president, Sunil Amar. Sean seemed to get a single and was then starved of the strike. 20 were added in 8 overs before Callieu was caught behind off the deserving Tharakan, leaving M & B on 142 for 3 with 6 overs to go and Sean on 80no. Sunday stalwart Atif, tin man, Amin walked to the wicket with the words of his captain ringing in his ears - rotate the strike. To be fair to Tifler that's exactly what he did, apart from one over, where he couldn't put bat on ball for four balls. It came down to the final over with M & B on 170 for 3 and Sean on 93no. Tifler got a single off the first ball to leave 5 balls to get 7 runs. Sean was taking no chances as he hit a length ball from Van Vuuren over the net into the Anstis' house for 6 and then pushed a single the next ball to bring up his century - his first for M & B and his first one ever! Well batted Sean Phillips-Williams - career best scores, a common occurrence for Aussies at bray over the last two seasons. For good measure Sean finished the innings with two boundaries to finish undefeated on 108 and carry his bat, a noble achievement especially as he only got to bed at 8am. He was ably assisted at the end by Tifler, who finished undefeated in a partnership of 45 in 6 overs, with 17 coming off the final over. M & B finished on 187 for the loss of only three wickets, posting their highest score of the season.

M&B opened up with the heavyweight double bill of Alkesh Vaja and Shabs Mookhtar. Poor keeper Callieu found the pace of Vaja a struggle as much as the opening batsmen. The batsmen edged a few early on and hit a few just out of the reach of fielders. Mookhtar made the first strike as Nayar jnr chased a wide one and was nicely pouched by Krish Vaja. A slight muscle strain forced Mookhtar off and he was replaced by colts spinner John Child. Child made a quick impression as he got one to turn and bounce and was well snaffled at slip by the surprisingly alert Howard. Alkesh was replaced by his younger brother Krish, who quickly showed his older sibling how to do it, bowling a much fuller length. Successive Waqarish yorkers left skipper Ghosh's poles shattered the same fate befalling Behar(a nightmarish ball to get first up). At 49 for 4 after 15 overs, M & B were in the driving seat. Neeraj Nayar and Chris Ledger recovered the situation with a sensible stand in the middle overs, playing out the tiring Krish Vaja, who started straying on the leg side and steadily accumulating against the crafty variations of Child. Child finished his excellent spell with figures of 8/1/23/1, showing a great loop in his delivery. The score had moved onto 95 in the twenty sixth over when two batsmen were dismissed. Nayar trying to force new bowler Gunbarul, only to be well caught at a wide second slip by Alkesh Vaja and then a few balls later Gunbarul rearranged Elliott's stumps with his trademark inswinging delivery. After conceding a few runs Howard exacted his revenge on Ledger, as he tried to hit a wide one and only succeeded in steering it to the waiting hands of Sean, at widish point who easily took the catch. A further strike form Gunbarul allowed Armstrong to give Benjamin Ward an over of his flighted filth from the Road End. To be fair he bowled a reasonable length and beat the bat on one occasion. Krish Vaja ended proceeding by castling Amar with another trademark yorker to prevent the novelty of another Ward over. Gunbarul chipped in at the end with excellent figures of 5/1/7/3 to cap fine allround performance and Krish Vaja finished with fine figures of 8/0/31/3.

The players enjoyed the Cobra offerings of Kensington and Sean bagged the Johnnie Walker whiskey for his bat carrying effort of 108no, easily beating the allround performance of Gunbarul and bowling exploits of colts John Child & Krish Vaja. My thanks to Tim Child for umpiring at the last minute.