Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

Washington captain Peter Kloss won the toss and chose to bat on a lovely summer's day. The pitch was dry, hard and even and looked much the best the Wash had seen this season. The batting decision looked justified when the new opening pairing of Tony Harris (35) and Brad Hitchcock (28) built a partnership of 61, virtually doubling the Wash's previous best in 2006. Both batted very sensibly, blocking the good balls and hitting the bad for 4 through the relatively fast outfield.

However both openers then fell quickly, followed by Steven Brown (11). At the half way point Washington were 95 for 3. Paul Irons, coming in at number 4, had played himself in by this time and then proceeded to build an innings which proved to be the linchpin of the team's innings. He cut loose in the later overs to hit a total of 89 from 63 balls, including 7 fours and 4 big sixes. At the other end batsmen came and went, nobody seeming able to hang around – Sandeep Kuckreja (13), David Gluckman (5) and Russell Pendry (5) were all out cheaply. Irons was bowled in the 39^th over, going for another big hit. Peter Kloss (12*) and Dominic Butcher (4) added a few in the last few overs.

Wash felt their score was just above par for the day – Irons' innings having pushed up the rating. 5.45 runs per over seemed a tough ask if the Wash could bowl reasonably well.

Things started well with Rose and Crown only 26 (for no wicket) from the first 8 overs against the bowling of Dave Mutton (making his debut for the Wash, 0-40), and Max Murrain (0-28). Mutton particularly bowled well with pace and bounce to cause the batsmen significant problems. Dominic Butcher (also making his debut, 1-41) came on at first change and bowled a good spell. However there was big disappointment in Peter Kloss (1-24) who, usually very accurate, did not seem able to bowl a ball straight. He bowled 7 wides and a no ball in his three overs and the skipper had to take himself off, even though he took the first wicket (through batsman's error). Speculation was that Kloss had somehow caught the 'bowling yips'.

Steven Brown (2-29) and Sandeep Kruckreja (1-20) then took over and both bowled good spells. Sandeep was particularly effective firing the ball in surprisingly quickly from his short run. He turned out to be the pick of the bowlers, his nagging accuracy making him really hard to score quickly from.

Russell Pendry (1-28) bowled a bad first over but then controlled things for a while. He also took his first wicket of the season, caught at cover to give Tony Harris his third catch of the match at that position.

So then came the last 10 overs. Rose and Crown needed 82 runs, but also had 7 wickets in hand. Kloss, unable to rely on himself, turned initially to Butcher who couldn't quite reproduce the form of his first spell and went for 17 from two overs. He then tried Mutton who also found the pressure too much and went for 28 from two overs. Murrain and Brown both bowled, but the batsmen were able to keep up with the run rate. It was left to Sandeep at the death; he bowled really well but he had been left with too much to do and Rose and Crown scored the single they needed from the 4^th ball of the final over.

Credit must go to Rose and Crown who, wickets in hand, paced their innings just right. Also there was not one dominant batsman, five players scoring around 30. However extras top scored with 40, including an unacceptably high number of wides – 26.

Washington were not at all content with their performance. There was much review conversation and soul searching after the game. Certainly a number of bowlers could have played better, but some of the fielding was below standard, three catches having gone down, and field placings on occasion left something to be desired.

Captain Peter Kloss said after the game “Obviously I'm disappointed - we should have won. However there were some great positives – Harris' and Hitchcock's opening stand, Irons' runs and Sandeep's bowling. For the rest of us the important thing is to reflect and learn from our mistakes. I believe we have the character to do this and achieve a different result next time”.

Man of the match: Paul Irons, for an innings which was the linchpin of the Wash effort

Packing the kit: Peter Kloss, skipper of the unfortunate losing team

Washington: Tony Harris, Brad Hitchcock (+), Steve Brown, Paul Irons, Sandeep Kuckreja, David Gluckman, Russell Pendry, Peter Kloss (c), Dominic Butcher, Dave Mutton, Max Murrain