Actonians were a new fixture for Pacific, and we got off to an auspicous start. Actonians had won the toss, and might have been forgiven for regretting asking the PCC to have a bowl - Tom Gane had been asked to play this fixture as a bowler, and proved his worth as such immediately, registering a wicket with the first ball of the match for a platinum duck. Having removed S Dhawan (not that one), PCC's tails were up. At the other end, Rahul was plumbing a tidy line outside of off stump, and finished his 7 overs of the 35 without the reward his bowling deserved, but restricting the opponents scoring opportunities well. Gane finished up with 3 wickets in the end, a very tidy performace with the ball. He finished up with identical figures (7-0-39 -3) to first change bowler PBD, who registered two caught and bowleds in a very tidy performance. Another Pacifico more often recognised as a batsman was bowling from the other end, with club stalwart Rob Dinsey twirling away around the wicket. A decent first outing as a specialist bowler this season bought the wicket of Malik, clean bowled, and though he dragged a few short, he looked tidy enough to consider a potential change of speciality overall. Garrett was the last nominated bowler, and bowled Sasan shortly before his landmark of 50 in his first over, before taking some monumental tap from S Sharma (not that one) in the next few overs. Eventually the left hander skipped down the wicket and was stumped by Siddiqui (M) off Garrett's last over, but not before he'd moved the scoreboard on to a respectable total. John Deighan bowled a tight over and a bit of change up, and eventually finished off the Actonians innings with another Siddiqui stumping for 192 all out.
In reply, Thornton and Chasseaud strode out to open up for the PCC. Toby was dismissed early by a fantastic catch at first slip off the bowling of S Sharma (not that one), probably the neutral's highlight of the match, whilst Jon stuck around to see off the new ball and set the tone for the following batsman. John Deighan came in at 3 for a combative 45 off 37 balls, and was unlucky not to reach his milestone. Riz had come in at 4 with the dismissal of Thornton, and started as he meant to go on, upping PCC's strike rate considerably. His innings of 66 included four maximums, and he looked settled throughout. After a decent cameo from Creatures - a quickfire 19 (16 from boundaries), Riz was joined by Mutz to make it Siddiqui squared to finish off the innings. With 5 overs to spare, PCC romped over the line for the loss of just four wickets with good batting left in the hutch. A decent win against opponents who played with a tremendous spirit throughout - even if some of the PCC fielding (particuarly from skipper Garrett) left something to be desired. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable Octobers afternoon, and a fixture we'd hope to repeat against very friendly opponents.
