Francis has North London in a Spin

The 5s had the strange experience of an away match at the Douglas Eyre Sports Centre. You see North London 5th XI and our own 4th XI share the ground, rather like AC Milan and Inter Milan share the San Siro, but with more geese. Anyway, Charles lost his third toss in a row and we were in the field. AT and Nirusha opened up and kept things tight, a task not helped by only having 10 men. The 5s thought they had their first breakthrough when their opener nudged one to mid off. Charles attacked the ball with the ferocity of a smiling puppy but produced a brilliant direct hit and their umpire raised his finger. Except this gesture was apparently to point to the crease and demonstrate that the batsman had made his ground. Dubious. Their openers got to 54-0 before Nirusha enticed one of them down the wicket and bowled him. What followed was a bit of a procession. Nirusha had the other opener caught well at short cover by Alec and there was a proper run out too. Nikhil came on and bowled well and could easily have claimed more than his two wickets. However, the plaudits of the day went to Tom Francis. His leg spin was simply too much for the North London tail. He thrice combined with Charles with Richard also taking a catch to remove their skipper, who was providing stubborn resistance. North London folded to 126 and Tom Francis finished with figures of 5-12 from his 7 overs. He was well supported by Nikhil and Nirusha as the 5s bowled 31 overs of spin in all. After tea, Atula and Will Frais set about knocking off the runs. Will also deserves a mention for his fantastic 'keeping. He dealt with the variable bounce very well and was sharp behind the stumps to all the spinners. He added 28 runs before being bowled. Atula fell in a similar fashion but Nikhil, batting at 4, steadied the ship. However, a batting collapse is never far away. The next 4 wickets fell in the blink of an eye and suddenly North London were back in the game. Alec became the third batsman to be bowled while AT managed to lob the ball to midwicket with the back of his bat. Nikhil fenced one to gully and Richard gave a return catch to their young leg spinner. This brought Charles and Tim Oon to the crease together. They showed great composure to take the singles on offer and put away anything loose. Cricket can be such a simple game sometimes. They both finished unbeaten 17 as the chase was completed with a dose of overthrows. A comfortable victory in the end. 10 points, a 5.30 finish and a win over some local rivals. If only every Saturday could go this smoothly.

Report by Alex Thomas