Is there a doctor in the house?

Where to begin with this most eventful of Sunday afternoons in Springfield Park? First the facts – a hard-fought, close two-wicket win in our inaugural fixture against Saracens Global. However, this barely scratches the surface of an exhilarating afternoon in East London (E5, not South Africa).

After pre-match talk of an appearance by the pregnant wife of one of the batsmen was put to bed, a full Pacific XI took to the field having lost the toss. An extraordinary first hour then took place where genuinely around 6 overs were bowled between 1pm and 2pm. A catalogue of incidents occurred: Hishaam delivering approximately 20 deliveries in his first two overs, 3 wickets falling (including Hungin striking with his second delivery in two years), two balls being lost, one in the grass and one in the canal, but most of all PCC's social influencing keeper dislocating his little finger. Mutz was then aghast when he found that despite around 20+ British Asians in attendance, there was not one doctor around able to slot it back in – quite astonishing! As such, he trooped off to Homerton Hospital in the hope of getting back soon enough to make a further contribution to the game. Siddharth stepped into the breach behind the stumps and gave a solid backup display.

At 11-3 the Saracens were tottering, to such an extent that when their No. 4 volleyed the ball on the full with his front foot in front of middle, their umpire had to turn down Hungin's enthusiastic appeal to, in his words, 'make a game of it'. Well, make a game of it they certainly did as their middle order dug in hard. Against the miserly twin-spin attack of Manav and Mehta, they slowly built a platform, aided to some extent by a number of PCC drops in the field. Mehta was especially hard done by with no reward for a teasing spell. The innings burst to life in the last 10 overs as shots were played, wickets fell and boundaries were plentiful. Aakash and Riz manfully held on to their tasks, and whilst going for a few, they were both rewarded with late strikes. The skipper taking home an ever so slightly generous 4-for.

At the halfway point, confidence in the chase was high, even more so when the batting line-up was announced and it was clear we had serious scoring ability down to 9. We were then further boosted by a returning Mutz, strapped up, high as a kite, ready to open. The openers did nothing to dispel this confidence as they sauntered into the 20s before we experienced the first of two collapses. 28-0 quickly became 36-4 as Rizwan Shaukat cut through the top order. But who better in a time of crisis like this than the swaggering Mark Mehta? He sauntered out to the middle where he drove, cut and glanced his way to a Mark Waughish 70. A magnificent partnership of 132 between he and the more prosaic M. Siddiqui took us to the brink of victory, so much so that the lower order were considering changing out of their whites.

This hubris was quickly detonated by a shocking collapse as Shaukat and Adil Hussain struck twice each, and before you blinked, we were 183-8. The fielding side, who had, up until this point, been quiet, were cock-a-hoop and happy to provide vocal analysis to the new batsmen at the crease, along the lines of 'it's going both ways' and 'he can't see it'.

However, from this darkness stepped the unlikeliest of heroes, as the youngest of the Siddiquis played one of the great leg glances in Pacific's history to get us to the brink. The final nails of victory were hammered down by a couple of streaky edges from the flailing bat of Hungin, and a successful chase was completed. Cricket is all about the destination and the journey.

J Hungin