Sunday XI v The Gentlemen of Hampstead - 9th June 2013

M & B were soundly beaten by The Gentlemen of Hampstead by 9 wickets on Sunday. The game did not prove to be one of the skipper Armstrong's best days in the office. In hindsight he would have preferred to bowl first rather than bat, but probably the result would have been the same anyway.

Armstrong was having visions of matching one of the 1's recent low league scores when M & B found themselves at 11 for 2 after 9 overs, with their 2 main batters back in the hutch. Newcomers Tom Noakes and 12 year old Josh Wallace, batted sensibly though to post the team 50 in the twenty first over. Wallace batted with great composure and technique for a 12 year old and promises to be one for the future and a useful addition to the 3rd X1 now. Noakes batted patiently guiding the ball through gully and whipping the ball off his legs to score 30 in 25 overs. With impetus to the innings required Sachin Moudgil stuck his hand up and scored 32 in 10 overs, with lofted and conventional drives and cuts. He posted the highest partnership of the innings of 41 with Jamie Kiddell in a productive 6 over stand. Kiddell showed the benefit of playing at university to show improved technique, especially through the cover region, in scoring 16. Just when it looked as if 200 may even be threatened Moudgil got out and with it M& B's opportunity of posting a reasonable score. Indeed his wicket triggered a lower order collapse and it was left to senior pro, Atif Amin, to enable M & B to score a very much below par 144 in 38.3 overs, by remaining undefeated on 23.

Things did not get any better when M & B bowled, with Adam Dean having to leave the field for good, with a nasty looking hamstring tear in the 3rd over, whilst chasing the ball in the field. Amin did though make an early breakthrough by bowling Lewis behind his legs. This though was to be the last wicket M & B achieved as their fielding let then down badly. Joe Blackett bowled a very good spell of six overs without any luck, finding the edge on a number of occasions and having both numbers 2 and 3 put down in the covers, to regulation catches. Armstrong knew the importance of these drops and his bad temper thereafter clouded his judgement for the rest of the game, not helped by the batsmen's continual pinching of quick singles every over. He bowled his full allocation of eight overs when he should have come off earlier and brought his spinner on too late. That said 144 was woefully inadequate but catches do win matches, especially when defending low totals !