Match Report – Ripley 20th May 2018

The Hetairoi XI (yes, XI) arrived at Ripley in good time on a perfect day. What followed was a fairy tale to rival the Royal Wedding. 

Having won the toss and agreed on a 40 over format, we chose to bat with confidence in our powerful batting line-up. On another day such hubris would have been repaid with a swift collapse. But not today. 

The elder Ball and equally youthful elder Penington gave us a steady start and blunted the dangerous opening attack which included Ripley’s NZ pro. Michael fell for 13 attempting to hurry the score along just before the first bowling change after 13 overs. 

Having survived the opening spell, the complexion of the game changed dramatically. Joe Halstead immediately seized the initiative with a flurry of boundaries and John responded. When John was stumped for 59 going for another big hit we had moved to 140 off 27 overs.

The pace continued to quicken with Joe heading towards his hundred. A huge six took him to 99 before he fell attempting a reverse sweep (even fairy tales aren’t perfect). 

Tim Drake (5), Vidur Goel(34), Will Ball(20*), and Neal Thathapudi(4*) each started scoring immediately keeping the pace up. Even the running between the wickets was impressive with Vidur and Joe running four successive sharp 2s to 3rd man.

We finished with 257 for 5 off 40 overs which, despite a fast outfield and one short boundary, looked imposing. 

After another delicious Ripley tea we took the field. 

Ripley’s task was immediately made much harder when Will Ball bowled batsmen 1 and 3 with big in-swingers in his first over. 

Ripley then had a good spell, scoring at close to the required rate, to reach 71 off 12 overs. Bringing on Richard Andrews and Vidur Goel soon made an impact. Vidur had Zapp caught in his first over and Richard had Hussain lbw shortly after. Accurate, testing bowling from Richard and Vidur ensured that Ripley never looked threatening despite a determined effort by Panting(32). Richard finished with an impressive 5 for 20 including a fine stumping by Neal Thathapudi.
It was left to Stephen Matthews and Justin Abel to finish off the tail once the game was no longer in doubt.