.. vs. Cambridge Assessment

On a pleasant evening Zootalurgy set out to play Cambridge Assessment.  Who are they?  Something to do with exams it was suggested.  Well.. we'd certainly set them a stern test.

After winning the toss our captain opted to bowl first.  To the untrained eye this may have seemed a strange decision for a team with 2 players yet to arrive, but this is the sort of "brave call" leaders of men sometimes have to make..

The match started brightly enough with Kond Kod Kooda Kodandana Ullassa passing the bat several times and bowling at a good pace.  Apart from a few "pitched up" deliveries which were no balled, he bowled a tidy spell (0-25 off 4).  From the other end Matt was bunging his medium pacers in short, and nicked a few wickets as the openers both mistook long hops for half volleys.  2-20 off 4 was his reward.

We saw the spin stylings of Tarun for an over.  It was quite uneventful (0-16)

As Alex came on as first change, the opposition were warming up.  Good line and length bowling (interespersed with the occasional massive wide), and terrific fielding from Simon "Bambi on ice" Martin kept the run rate low(ish), and he finished on 0-30 off 4.  From the other end Simon Baxter(0-36 off 3) bowled a great first over, but the batsmen were gaining confidence and started reaching the boundary with alarming regularity.  Stephen "Brady" Grady and Simon Martin took the death overs, got bugger all luck, and finished on 0-22 off 2 and 0-20 off 2 respectively. Cambridge Assessments finished on 176.  Easy!

After seeing Tarun smash 14 off the first over, the sight of him getting bowled for a quickfire 16 must have been a hell of a relief for the opposition.  Simon M batted well to keep the runs flowing for a while and hit a memorable lofted drive back over the bowler's head on his way to 20 runs.

Unfortunately that was pretty much the end of our resistance.  Bill pulled a couple of 4s over extra cover(!), but noone else passed 3 runs.  This all happened in a bit of a blur, but I have to mention Mike's wicket.  We all know that its important to keep as still as possible as the bowler releases the ball, but Mike took this to new heights, getting bowled without making the slightest movement towards the ball.  This was because the bowler was now releasing the ball from directly in front of the low evening sun.  Bad luck, Mike!

See you all next match for a famous victory