Anyone who has spent any time on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Insta Reels or any other short-form-video social media site will have been struck by the discovery that humans evidently find certain patterns and textures oddly comforting. Videos of anything from giant machines cutting steel to potters crafting teapots have the most extraordinary online success. And all cricketers know the peculiar feeling – at once soothing and uplifting – of seeing a perfect Jimmy Anderson delivery in slow motion, the ball arcing down the track, the almost-upright seam biting into the turf and nipping back in.
That same brain-stroking sensation surely arose in the limbic system of every Racqueteer when we took to the field at Crawley and beheld the tall, lithe figure of G back where he belongs behind the stumps after a fortnight in the US, and flanked reassuringly by the Skipper at slip. Yes: all was well with the world.
The Bard (0 for 28) and Rishi (2 for 12) opened the bowling. (Which, as an aside, is a very linguistically satisfying partnership, given that rishi means ‘seer’ or ‘bard’ in Sanskrit.) Rishi cut through in his third over, taking two wickets for three runs with pace and intent. One of his wickets literally shattered the bails, his urgent cry of ‘please keep it for my collection!’ echoing around Crawley. Farmer Chris (1 for 24), LT (0 for 32) then took up bowling duties, staunchingthe flow of runs from the impressive opposition batsmen with tireless regard to line and length. Chris claimed one – a lightning-quick stumping by G who, it must also be mentioned, conceded just three byes in the entire innings. Flipper (0 for 16) and OC (1 for 13) closed out the session, leaving us with 126 to chase.
That meant we needed just over a run a ball – though itquickly became significantly less, as the Skipper and Rishi scored 23 off the first two overs alone. Thereafter things slowed down a little, and the ‘runs in over’ row in the scorebook tells its own story: 12, 9, 0, 6, 8, 5, 5, 5, 2, 8, 3, 1, 14 (OC!), 2, 2, 5, 2, 1. Benno (13), OC (24) and Bardy (13) made a few, OC in particular looking in excellent attacking form, but overall we lost wickets slightly faster than we should have done and scored runs slightly more slowly than we needed to. It fell to Mini Bard, playing his first full match for the Racqueteers, to end the session, and was unlucky to be run out after lifting the ball clean over midwicket. Did the wicketkeeper hesitate before lifting the bails? Not for long. We ended our innings nine balls short of the 20 overs, and 29 runs short of the target.
The Skipper took Bardy aside after the game. ‘Can you post the result on the group chat?’, he said, in confidential tones. ‘Maybe just say that cricket was the winner’. It was.
The Racqueteers Cricket Club 