A familiar place for us in the cup. It’s always a good game. Away to Timperley and with a stronger side on paper for the game. We turned up to a soft green-top, but it was also a small ground and quick outfield. Rehmani wins the toss and decides to bowl first, a decision that initially paid dividends, with the skipper claiming two early wickets.

Two of Timperley’s more experienced batters, Shahnawaz Khan (otherwise known as Rehmani’s best mate) and Jordan Ruff, then steadied the ship and picked up the rate. The pair put on 83 for the third wicket, and in quick time. They capitalised on anything too short and floaty or over-pitched. It wasn’t the best bowling performance in the world after the first few overs, and Timperley looked on target to get 170+.

Good bowling from Sunil in the middle overs was supported by Haaris picking up wickets at the other end. Aaron was unfortunate in his spell but he’ll learn from that and come back stronger in T20s. There was a lot of following the ball in the field, but the team did peg Timperley back a bit and finished well. At the halfway stage, we were pretty happy to be chasing 149 and thought they were 10 behind what would be par..

Didsbury’s response got off to a slow start due to yours truly, but me and Archie picked up the pace and started to free the arms a bit. We took the score to 72 off 9.3 overs, with very few risks taken, before Arch edged a drive to a fielder in a deep-gully position. Billy followed next ball after attempting a drive, and then I followed next over, ramping the spinner onto my stumps (a sentence I never thought I’d write). We had gone from a commanding position to a game in the balance - very very 2As, especially against this opposition, and the keeper enjoyed reminding us of the one-run loss last season.

At this point, we needed about eight an over and singles were available everywhere, but the subsequent nine overs was really really poor in terms of batting the situation. Having started well, Rob got out (again) ramping and spooning it up, and then Sunil and Rehmani went at below run-a-ball scores (not without trying though. This meant that we very quickly needed 10 an over and, despite there being batters still to come, the game was gone. We managed 51 runs in 10.3 overs, losing seven wickets. Not good enough.

There was understandably a lot of frustration after the game, but my overall assessment of it was that there was a lack of thought when both fielding and batting. It’s unfortunately all too common in the 2As.

So I’ll brighten up this match report by sharing some other things that happened during the game:

1. Shish started walking out to bat without a box on, turned back to pick it up and the continued to walk to the crease while putting it on.
2. Rob got to enjoy taking his pads off while a random old man came into our changing room, stripped off and took a shower.
3. Just before leaving, Archie reminded me that the reason he couldn’t play on the weekend was because he had a hot date. Please make sure to ask him how it went when you see him next. And poor form.

Sorry lads, needed to brighten the mood!

Good luck to the 2s, who will hopefully continue to draw the easiest sides left in the competition all the way to finals day ?

2As welcome Macclesfield to Mere on Saturday, my first unavailability of the season, so I will be relying on the lads playing for updates for the match report.

Picture: Haaris very happy with either the bowlers paradise of a pitch, or remembering the fact that Uber Eats delivers to Timperley.