After a long dry hot spell,23 cricketers gathered in N.London to play a game..

23 cricketers you wonder,well we had an abundance of talent available. Although 1 had to opt out eventually to make the math work.

The pitch looked green and had inches of uncut growth. 

A relief after bowling on astro and dustbowls recently.

Pacificos lost the toss and were sent in to bat.

The reliably solid Toby and debutant Jackson strutting out to the middle.

What followed in the first 10 overs was good quality bowling as Jackson missed the line and length with the frequency of Covid boosters.

Hope he took the right lessons from his innings.  He is young and has a fantastic future ahead of him.

Jas who has been playing with the handbrakes on for a while now,committed a victimless crime. 

Kaleem lasted an over before being trapped in front.

Riz then joined Toby as they continued their partnership over from last week at Oakfields.

Riz wasted little time in racing to his unbeaten 85, whilst Toby built his 90 on time tested technique and patience. 

The Yin and Yang of Pacific.

Being a timed game,we declared on 223 after 45 overs.

Fives started their innings with fours.

Oops,not really, but I couldn't resist the play on words. 

Pacific opening bowlers,especially the young gun Ali,one of A-Bombs umpteen proteges,made the oppo batsmen duck and weave.

Jithin tried his bit with sporadic success.

The middle overs were relatively mundane with nothing exciting happening. The game was meandering with the oppo batsmen slowly but steadily knocking the runs off.Shahid the 12th man(Take a bow,Mutz for opting out) who wandered to Hurst Avenue courtsey of a mix up with Korgy bowled a very good spell to keep the Fives relatively quiet.

Nelson the number 4 for the Fives,not the Trafalgar one,decided to fire his broadsides with casual disregard for aesthetics. The anti-Toby if you like. But deadly and equally effective. 

Jas the Pacificos skipper for the game had 9 bowling options to choose from.

An abundance of migraines, sorry bowlers.

To find a batsman he had to look at Toby or find himself a mirror.He did his best to rotate the bowlers and kept his fielders in attacking positions.

Fives reached the target with 3 overs to spare.

Well done to them.

Whilst we left wondering if next time we should go in with 11 bowlers just in case 2 got injured during the game.

Onwards we march.

A special mention for Kaleem who kept with enthusiasm backed by his athleticism. 

As a stand-in keeper,he won the praise of the opposition for his excellence and acrobatic leg side saves.

Some interesting stats from the game.

We faced almost 120 dot balls. That's 20  overs.

And bowled 13 wides. That's 2 extra overs for the opposition.