Every game against Sale tends to be closely fought and controversial. I’m afraid to say that this game was neither of those things.

The 2As should have been on a high, after beating 1st and 3rd in the last two weeks, while Sale had lost two of their last three games.

The team had four changes, with Sunil Singh, Aaron Grimbaldeston, Tom Brady and Nikash Hinduja all out, and replaced with Shabih Shah, Basseem Basheer, Will Neal, and Adam Slater in. Not bad replacements! The difficulty, however, was that there was no real balance in the team. With Sunil out of the squad, we are missing a batter. And, having lost the toss and being put into bat, we opted to go top-heavy with our recognised batters.

Sale is arguably one of the best places to bat in the league, but the deck had a lot of grass on it, so we expected to seam early doors. The reality was that there wasn’t much movement off the pitch at all, and it was just on the slow side.

I opened up with Adam, and we didn’t start well. I was scratching all over the place, while Adam nicked off to slips early doors. Jacob Mills came in at three and was the only Dids player that actually looked comfortable out there. He immediately got about his business, scoring boundaries on both sides of the wicket, and made our partnership look half decent. We (he) put on 38 for the second wicket, before I get bowled by the league’s sweetheart, Gazza.

Rehmani, who was umpiring, said I missed a straight one (which is entirely possible), while Gaz said it pitched leg-stump and hit off-stump. It’s probably fair to say it was somewhere in the middle of that… either way, it’s out. Jacob has then played the dominant role in the 31-run partnership with Billy Hoye, who lofted a drive to point, demonstrating how slow and stoppy the pitch was.

Shortly after, Shabih gets triggered LBW and performs the most fantastic bat toss while walking off. Not sure if it’s on the live stream, so I’d recommend checking it out. Never good seeing that. It’s just not cricket. However… anyone that’s played with Shabi will agree with me that it was good to see some passion and energy from him there.

James Coventry, who had more of a chance to bat this week than last, looked good timing it off his legs, but mid-timed a pull shot to midwicket. At this stage, we were 94-5 and Jacob would have scored most of them. At no stage did our innings get going really. Just the one player making double figures in the top nine! I wouldn’t attribute this to unplayable bowling either.

Once Jacob (82) gets out with the score at 124-8, the game felt pretty done at this point. It was a 220-par kind of pitch/ground, in my opinion, so we needed a miracle to get that kind of score. We also had 20 odd overs to bat still at this point. Really poor match awareness but, again, a common feature in the 2As it seems.

Haaris’ first shot was an attempt to put the ball in the tennis courts, which then triggered some sense into him and he batted well for his 18*, the only other Dids player to make double-figures. I’m not going to say anymore positive things about that knock though because it’ll be used as evidence next week to put him in the top seven (sorry Haaris!).

Sale was much happier at the halfway stage, and we were pretty downbeat at lunch. There were a few attempts to get the lads up, but it was a tall order to turn this around. It didn’t help that the two opportunities that went through the slips early doors didn’t go to hand.

Sale got off to a solid start and, once they managed the first 10 overs, started to push the pace on. Both openers looked comfortable with seam, but struggled more when spin was introduced. Baseem picked up the first of the day, with a smart catch from Adam behind the stumps. This brought in Iftikhar, who usually plays for Sale’s first team now, and who dispatched anything floated up to all parts. There are a few gardens that now have cricket balls in them.

His figures don’t do it justice, but I’d say the stand out bowler (again) was Haaris. He had got Iftikhar caught behind early on, but not given, and a plumb LBW which I think the whole of DCC have now seen back on the livestream, and then two that couldn’t be denied, bowling Coombes and Soans with his arm ball. Despite this, Sale didn’t look at any time like they were not going to chase the total. Frustratingly, it was a comfortable win for them, and it means Dids drop to sixth. That’s how congested it is at the top of the table.

Heaton Mersey next week at home. Really should be winning that, but they will be confident, coming off a win against the reformed Grappenhall.

Pic was supplied by Haaris.