On a beautiful sunny evening in London, Russell Investments joined us for the eagerly anticipated first game of the season at the Shepherds Bush Cricket Ground. Russell arrived with their backs up, ready to put in a strong performance after a narrow defeat last season.
Jo Hemmant, fresh from a 10k warm-up jog down to the ground, elected to open the batting after winning the all-important toss.
Oli Close and Alex Smith opened the batting getting the total flowing with some solid runs on the board, although Oli was fortunate to not be out for a duck after being handed the reprieve of not being able to be out first ball. Justin Cowper, Investec's overseas player for the day put in a great display with the bat and ball. His early pace and accuracy with the ball minimised Russell’s early total.
The first breakthrough came in the 7th over with Alex Smith falling to the bowling of Mike Procter. With that, in came R. Hill who helped tick the total up. However, the fall of Hill was the start of a mini-collapse, although a steady stay at the crease from David Gregory along with some late, solid hitting from Jo Hemmant meant Russell left the pitch with a respectable yet chase-able 117. Special mentions to both David Gregory and Oli Close whose strong displays meant they had to retire at the customary 25.
Following a quick turnaround, Mike Procter and Graeme Baker came in to open the batting for Investec, and clearly concerned about the fading light, hit 25 off the first over with a few big sixes, offering no sympathy to the unfortunate Nashtar Suri who had come in to open the bowling for Russell. Mike didn't seem to be in the mood for taking it easy on the bowlers, equally hitting Oli Close and David Gregory around the ground before reaching his 25 to retire in just 10 balls. With that Justin Cowper arrived at the crease, fresh from a great spell with the ball. A solid innings of 1s and 2s interspersed with a sporadic couple of 4s meant he helped build on Investec’s total. Graeme Baker remained a solid figure at the other end keeping the total ticking up before having to retire on 25 himself. With that, Oli Osterwind came to the crease for a short-lived innings which started with a 4 through fine leg, only to be bowled out a few balls later to the trickery of Chris Adolph. This was coupled with the departure of Justin Cowper only a few balls later. Having built a nice total, Frank Doyle and Matt Huntingdon were able to see Investec over the line with 37 balls to spare.
Strong bowling performances from Russell of note were Jo Hemmant, who bowled a great 5.75 economy over his 4 overs taking 1 wicket in the process, and Chris Aldoph whose only over led to the taking of 1 wicket and only 2 runs conceded. Perhaps he should have been given a longer spell with the ball?
With that, both sides were able to retire to the bar to mull over the game with talk already turning to Russell coming back next year to put up a more resilient effort.