Dan did his duty as captain by winning the toss and electing to bowl. Toby and Lokesh took the new ball. The first 6 overs were quiet with no wicket falling but bowling still seemed like the right choice with the the pitch being very unpredictable - mutterings of Sabina park echoed around the ground. Toby picked up one in his opening spell with the batsman looping one up to Tristan at first slip. With Dan on the hunt for more wickets he turned to Tim and Alex as first change. Tim quickly obliged and removed the other opener with a good ball that trapped him lbw. Alex held up the other end bowling beautifully to end his first spell 13-0 off 5 overs ( 1 Maiden). The captain was still hungry for wickets and gestured towards Epi warm up. We didn’t have to wait long as in his second over he got the batsman sweeping to deep backward square leg were Alex took an absolute blinder of a catch at full stretch above his head. Enter Siddarth, his tidy off spin earned him 2 wickets in his first over, impressive. The tail briefly wagged with their number 10 hitting a sketchy 21 before being bowled by a Gazunder. Their number 11 lasted 1 ball before being bowled. Village CC all out for a total of 242 off 39 overs, which on this pitch looked like a decent score. With bellies full Tristan and Siddarth went out to the middle to open for the PCC. Both batsman played a handsome innings, with Siddarth hitting a pleasing 56 containing 6 fours and 2 sixes. Tristan too went on to get his half century having survived a caught behind appeal on 44 which everyone on Hampstead heath heard other than the umpire. Sorry about that. Captain Dan came in at 3 and hit a quick 43 before being caught in the field. Ben at 4 hit a quick 19, containing probably the shot of the day, smashing the bowler back over his head into the thick undergrowth surrounding the ground - new ball please. With the PCC 4 down for 223 it was our game to win. The nervous energy was palpable as the next 4 wickets fell for a meagre 17 runs. It was down to the opening bowlers the get the final 3 runs required for a win off the final ball of the game, Lokesh swung hard and ran harder to pick up 2 off the final ball leaving only one winner - cricket.

Village CC v Pacific Toss won by Pacific

Village CC innings  R  M  B  4  6 C Pontin   c L-Gordon b Jarvis   8  0  25  0  0   P Misra   lbw b Garrett   27  0  30  4  1   H Barrow†   c Jarvis b Garrett   47  0  25  7  2   S Dean   lbw b Garrett   5  0  12  1  0   T De Mellow*   not out    7  9  0  1  0   N Troja   c Hunte b Epstein   15  0  21  3  0   E Gupte   b Asthana   77  0  52  9  4   B Hussain   b Sriram   4  0  12  0  0   C Pitcher   lbw b Sriram   0  0  1  0  0   E Francis   b Jarvis   21  0  24  3  0   C Woodhouse   b Jarvis   1  0  2  0  0    Extras (b 12, lb 2, w 6, nb 11) 31      TOTAL (38.4 Overs) 242

Fall of wickets:  1-31 , 2-73 , 3-94 , 4-101 , 5-136 , 6-154 , 7-154 , 8-236 , 9-239 , 10-242

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Tobias Jarvis   7.4  0  59  3    Lokesh Asthana   6  2  30  1    Tim Garrett   8  0  46  3    Alex Hunte   8  1  29  0    Nick Epstein   5  0  42  1    Siddharth Sriram   4  0  26  2

Pacific innings  R  M  B  4  6 Siddharth Sriram   c Misra b Woodhouse   56  0  71  6  2   Tristan L-Gordon   st b Pitcher   76  0  79  6  4   Daniel Humphrey*   c Square leg b E Gupte   45  0  51  3  1   Ben Burnham   b E Gupte   19  0  12  0  2   Cid Nair   c Dean b Bilal   0  0  6  0  0   Nick Epstein   run out    4  0  5  1  0   Murtaza Siddiqui†   run out    5  0  6  1  0   Tobias Jarvis   not out    1  0  3  0  0   Alex Hunte   st b E Gupte   0  0  2  0  0   Lokesh Asthana   not out    2  0  1  0  0   Tim Garrett   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 13, lb 9, w 3, nb 2) 27      TOTAL (40.0 Overs) 242-8

Fall of wickets:  1-86 [Sriram] , 2-186 [L-Gordon] , 3-220 [Burnham ] , 4-223 [Nair] , 5-229 [Humphrey] , 6-238 [Epstein] , 7-239 [Siddiqui] , 8-240 [Hunte]

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Bilal   8  0  28  1    Misra (Bosh)   8  0  39  0    E Gupte   8  0  36  3    C Woodhouse   6  0  52  1    Troja   8  0  47  0    C Pitcher   2  0  19  1