Cricket: MRG Bask In Sunshine Victory

A beautiful Thursday evening greeted the first BMRB – Richard Poustie had chosen to bowl first.

The MRG top order saw valuable contributions from Jones (19), Hiddleston (14) and Tiwari (27), whilst Shirley batted out the rest of the innings on his way to 38. MediaTel’s debutante Neil Guppy gave an exciting climax to the MRG total by dispatching the last 3 balls of the allotted 20 overs to the boundary in one of the quickest 12 runs I’ve ever seen!

The MRG fielding effort was marred by an early injury to brave wicket-keeper Shirley, whose connection of nose to ball meant he had to leave the field for some Adam Ant-style bandaging. However replacement backstop Dromgoole was a more than able reserve, taking some wayward bowling with ease and notching up an impressive stumping during his temporary role behind the bails.

The formidable task of overhauling the 170 for 5 total posted by their opposition was always going to be a tall order for the BMRB batsmen and women. Despite a comfortable half-century from stylish opener Harry, the support required in keeping up to the required run-rate of 8.5 an over never materialised, and Harry’s enforced retirement effectively signaled the end of BMRB’s challenge as they fell 50 runs short, suffering the loss of 7 wickets. However BMRB’s New Zealand import Vanessa still managed to prove that reaching double figures should not have been as difficult as some of her male counterparts found, as her first attempt at this sport saw her reach 10 before being run out.

However the game went for the respective players, the post-match freebies (drinks, meal, full-size table snooker) made sure it was all worthwhile, and all look forward to doing it again!

Report: Kevin North