Frustrating Winning Draw Against Acton

The Mighty 4s arrived at the Stow keen to make amends for the farcical first round ‘tie’, where both teams finished on the same runs, yet Acton had had ten more overs to score them.

A lot of the in-car chat was about the importance of the toss. In the centre, as soon as the coin dropped on heads, skipper Pistol’s first thought was “they’re going to bowl and they’re going block out”. If only the lottery numbers were that predictable.

As the new Dream Team approached their third consecutive fifty opening stand, Percy somehow managed to get tangled up and was bowled off his pads for eleven. With Gaurav belting the ball to all parts, Richard entered and began building his innings. Guarav’s fluent time at the crease though came to an end when, after having attacked everything, he tried to pat down the new innocuous slow bowler and played it straight to first slip, out for 65 from 57, taking his season’s tally past 600 and going past Sean Fegan’s 2008 record for most runs in a season.

After Gaurav’s aggressive innings, the run rate actually increased with Chrissy coming to the crease, notching up his 50 in thirty balls before being bowled for 55. Richard soon fell for 36 from 64 balls, as did Nick for 3, before a good partnership was seen between Patrick (40 from 42) and Seb (16 from 16) who then passed the baton onto Jimmy (21 from 17) and Pistol (15 from 14) when the declaration was made at 269/7 after 49 overs.

With the hope the Acton might go for the total, Pistol and Percy took the new ball, and started well, but did not get an early wicket, as Acton seemed content to occupy the crease, as the early premonition seemed to be coming true. Percy thought he had gotten through the opening partnership, clean bowling the Oppo skipper (who said “I didn’t even see it”), only to turn to see the umpires arm out for a no ball. Pistol though got the breakthrough to a bat-pad catch to Chrissy, then soon had the number 3 caught by Gaurav at cover. A brief cameo by the number 4 of 24 from 15 balls before drinks brought some life back into the chase, before being taken by a brilliant catch at point by Gaurav in his injured hand. After drinks the bowling was rotated to try get through the batting line up, and although wickets were being chipped away, Acton’s defensive innings held tight. Bowlers Pistol (4/55 from 19), Percy (3/42 from 12), Fergus (0/38 from 8), Nick (0/17 from 5), Seb (0/11 from 4), Gaurav (0/13 from 2) and Patrick (0/2 from 1) and toiled hard and bowled well, but in the end, Acton’s decision to block out held firm.

Very disappointing to have only picked up 8 points from the two matches against Acton after thoroughly outplaying them each time. The winning draw leaves us one point behind them and ten points behind Finchley, who are now in the box seat to win the league, having the bottom three teams left to play. The 4s, with three big games remaining will have to hope Finchley slip up along the way.