Sunday XI v Regals 29th April 2018

M & B got their 2018 Sunday season off to an inauspicious with a 105 run defeat to Regals. The players returned to Bray to find the pitch invaded by cars and a throng, courtesy of the nursery fair. Armstrong made a decision to reduce the game to 35 overs and in the end the game only started 15 minutes, as the crowd dissipated and the cars disappeared. Stand in skipper Thomas Wilding lost the toss and was condemned to 35 overs in the freezing cold. Ambar Moorthy and Edward Stark got proceedings off for M & B and generally bowled disciplined lines and lengths. Regals opener Dubey rotated the strike efficiently and ran the twos hard. Moorthy got the first strike of 2018 getting Singh caught by new Aussie Sean Phillips-Williams at mid-off in the ninth over. A run out quickly followed as the new batsmen wasn't in tune with Dubey's quick singles. After 14 overs Regals were 46 for 2 with Dubey on 31 and this signalled the end of the opening seasonal salvos for messrs Moorthy & Stark - Moorthy finished with excellent figures of 7/1/81/1 and Stark 7/0/27/0, both were probably grateful that they had both been bowling as their colleagues shivered in the outfield. This brought the introduction of senior Sunday spinner Chris Butler to the bowling crease in tandem with new player Benjamin Howard. Today, probably due to the cold, was not a day for Butler, as he tended to drop too short and was pulled too often for a spinner, nonetheless his final figures of 7//1/39/1 were none too shabby. Despite a first ball no ball Howard hit his straps and bowled a final opening spell of 4/1/8/1 before he was taken off to be replaced by Aussie Sean. Despite haling from Melbourne he probably hadn't experienced such freezing temperatures on a cricket field. Consequently he had difficulties gripped the cherry with his numb fingers and three overs of liquorice allsorts occurred. This spell coincided with the arrival of Dhaliwal to the wicket at 94 for 5 after 27 overs, of which the immovable Dubey had accumulated 57. Howard was brought back and was greeted by a straight driven 6 into the net by Dhaliwal. Wargarve's own Gunbarul was entrusted with the final four overs from the Road End. Although the seamers bowled well that extra pace on the ball aided the batsman as Dhaliwal and Dubey plundered 66 in 6 overs, Dubey especially strong straight. Dubey eventually reached a well deserved century in the penultimate over and finished undefeated on 106 out of a total of 178 for 6 in 35 overs.

It wasn't pleasant for the fielders in these bitterly cold conditions and not surprisingly a few chances went down. Skipper Wilding dropped a difficult chance off Dubey at slip and the late arriving(due to bar commitments) Ben Ward had one of those rifle drives at mid-on which he got a finger to but in the end only parried it almost to the boundary.

After thawing out in the tearooms over Brian's teas the M & B batsmen re-entered the fray. Skipper Wilding leading the troops with new comrade Tusher Dhaliwal. The M& B batsmen got off to a steady start posting 28 in the seventh over, with Wilding scoring the bulk of them, mainly with his driving and one muscled pull through midwicket. However calamity struck in the 7th over as Wilding called Dhaliwal through for a third and keen not to disobey his captain Dhaliwal took on the foolish run and was easily beaten by the throw. Perhaps with the run out on his mid Wilding tried to loft Dhaliwal over mid-on but alas easily found the fielder and departed for 19, next ball Aussie Sean was beaten for pace or lack of light and bounce but either way was castled and M & B had collapsed from 28/0 to 28/3 in the space of 8 balls! Once Gunbarul & Howard had departed with only 48 on the board for 5 wickets in the 16th over, defeat was on the cards. The tail flayed valiantly but could only muster a meagre 73 in total, the last wicket falling second ball of the 28th over to leave a 105 run in only a 35 over game! Regals main bowlers bowled more consistent lines and lengths than the M&B bowlers and reaped the rewards. The Regals didn't bother to stay for a drink in the bar after the game though, which was disappointing.