After Bloomsbury Royals forfeited their NELCL match against us as they were unable to raise a side, Canary Wharf Royal stepped up to the plate to keep a fixture on with this friendly at Millfields.

With the sun bearing down and a cloudless sky, the Pacific XI team slowly accumulated at Millfields. Clearly confident that we’d done our preparation, we donned the new “Bazball” approach to warming up, with a mixture of casual catching practice and sitting around whilst CWR, subscribing to the Andy Flower warm-up approach, gathered in a circle to carry out some synchronised stretching followed by team chants. 

Toby lost the toss and Pacific reluctantly entered the mid-afternoon sunshine to see whether their catching during the game would be any better than their warm-up catches. 

Sam and Dan opened the bowling and were soon getting on top of the opening pair. Aided by the fact we were on edge of the square, the wicket was particularly troublesome and wasn’t sure whether it wanted to come or go. Dan quickly worked out that a length ball was ending up in the ribs of the openers and took to some body-line bowling. Sam meanwhile was going in the other direction and dropping in short-balls to find them going through at knee height. 

Some tight bowling brought regular wickets and had CWR under control despite some T20 shots coming out the bag. Rahul bowled excellently for his four wickets and 5 dropped catches, perhaps a sign PCC’s warm-up approach wasn’t quite working. Notable mentions for Eppy and Korgy who made good use of the dry pitch, and Alex who found some lovely shape and rhythm. 

But the odd bad ball an over was enough to allow one of CWR’s batsmen to get on top and push the score up to 281 – a big target to chase in the hot evening sunshine.

Safe in the knowledge that the pitch had flattened out, Tristan and Dan went out to open. Short lived was this confidence, however, as the new ball brought back the gremlins of earlier. Tristan got caught out by a length ball that clipped the top of his cap (queue overly excited appeals from the oppo) whilst Dan knocked a few lovely boundaries to get Pacific moving. With Manav umpiring at one end we all knew we were at the mercy of his overly active finger and Dan looked a goner when he heavily gloved a full ball that jumped through to the keeper. But no, Manav held firm and refused the appeals much to everyone’s surprise. 

Of course, Manav couldn’t ruin his excellent reputation as a giver of wickets and promptly sent Dan walking after he got caught on what must have been his heel with a ball heading to fine leg. Manav’s defence was that he’d have been upset to not get it as a bowler.

Tristan then got caught out by the bounce whilst playing a leave and gloved one through to the keeper.

Having seen off the opening bowlers, and with Chris and Toby settling in, the chase was back on and “Bazball” was alive. Chris then spooned one and was caught, which allowed Saqib, donning someone else’s gloves, bat and pads (but thankfully not box), to enter the fray. 

Toby and Saqib settled in and played some lovely shots to keep things ticking along until Saqib caught out by the bounce as gloved one to the keeper to bring out the second Duncan. Things kept moving until Chris clearly got jealous of Toby and Aly’s enviable connection and sent Toby, who’d raced to 45 by this point, back to the figurative pavilion for trying to sweep a right-arm around delivery. 

Rahul, after his bowling heroics, decided he was playing for the non-existing man of the match accolade. With Aly retiring hurt with a pulled hamstring, Eppy and Sam played a few shots before departing to leave Alex and Rahul for some late evening heroics. With the game out of sight Rahul and Alex settled in and played for their averages. Some excellent shots and running helped Pacific up to 219, with Rahul and Alex ending on an impressive 76 and 24 respectively.

TLG

This was a "home" fixture