4s Lose against Finchley

After a rare win of the toss, Finchley were immediately put into bat at the Stow. And when Pistol took wickets in his first two overs leaving Finchley two down for only four runs, the Midd thought they were in with a chance to knock them over cheaply. What came next was a double century partnership, which tore the heart out of the Midd attack. Both batsmen notched up centuries with a combination of style, aggression and luck as they flayed all of the bowlers around the E17 outfield. The runs flowed as the bowling was changed around without success (Dykie 0/66, Chrissy 0/12, Gaurav 0/53, Marc 0/17) in the hope of breaking the partnership. When Shoaib was finally bowled by Fergus (1/76 from 11) for 139, Finchley were 244/3 in the 44th over. The carnage continued, but finally Pistol (3/69 from 17) had Waj LBW for 116, Finchley calling in the troops having compiled 299/4 from 50 overs.

After seeing the Finchley batsmen play on the Walthamstow pitch with ease, the Midd were quite confident about putting up a good effort in chasing the runs down. But it seemed to be a different pitch when the innings began as wickets fell regularly. Patrick was bowled by the first ball of the dig then soon Griff fell for a duck after gloving one to the keeper. The introduction of “The Dentist” then had Engie nicking off to first slip, then had Marc edging to gully in consecutive balls, but sadly he had to curtail his 5 ball bowling spell due to injury without attempting the hat-trick ball.

At 4/30, Finchley’s total of 4/299 seems like Everest. Chrissy soon played on, off his elbow, before Carl and Gaurav put on a mini-fightback taking the score up to 65. But when Gaurav fell for 28 then Carl for 19 and then Pistol for 8, the Midd were 8/79 with Jimmy and Dykie at the crease. And as they have been doing very well over the past month, they crafted a nice partnership taking the score past 100. Dykie’s pre-match taunt that he had revised his season’s batting ambition from scoring 150 runs to getting “more than Chrissy” looked like a good one as he pumped the Finchley attack in a very entertaining 32. Jimmy batted well for a composed 13, but in the end the Mighty 4s we dismissed for 123, a long way short of the required total.

Another disappointing loss for the 4s, but confidence remains high for a big finish to the season.