Another hot, sunny day at Streatham and Marlborough's ground saw spectators cheer a team of 11 talented players to a comfortable victory.
Unfortunately, they were watching England thrash Panama in the World Cup while the Mandarins toiled in the field, guessing the score from the occasional shouts from inside the bar.
It was a tough day, made tougher by the heat and some generous (to the batsmen) LBW decisions, as the opposition batsmen proved difficult to dislodge.
One in particular, an ageing and irate Indian rumoured to have played at a much higher level, was particularly challenging until his arrogance got the better of him. Gesturing to a teammate on the boundary he told him to prepare to take a catch (translation services provided by A. Manian). A few balls later, he did indeed offer up a gratefully taken catch, albeit to a Mandarin well within the boundary.
Special mention must also go to the bowling of G. Warren, who “made things happen”. A lot of those things were runs – history and the opposition's indecipherable scorebook do not record how many – but two of them were valuable wickets.
Streatham and Marlborough completed their 40 overs having made an intimidating 256.
A few Mandarins made starts – Venky (32), Warren (23) and Baxter (19) – and Eastaway, batting well up the order, made an attractive 16 before getting run out, conveniently just before he would have had to leave anyway.
However, with the total still quite some way off, the lower order had no alternative but to swing and hope – in vain, as it turned out. Streatham and Marlborough completed their victory with seven overs to spare, Hurst the not out batsman with 4.
Chris McKeon
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