For our final game of the season, the Friendlies went up against Stockport Georgians 4s, a good standard team to sign off the season against.
Despite losing the toss and having to bowl first, Amjad and Ahmad bowled beautifully, routinely beating the edge. Despite somehow not taking a wicket, they kept the run rate nice and low and put pressure on the batters.
I don’t know who had upset Josh, but he bowled like a man possessed. Using all of his height on a slightly two paced pitch, he first dismissed their well-set opener with an absolute seed, hitting the top of off-stump and nearly sending the bail to the boundary. This was followed this up by having Usman take a simple catch in the ring when their batter walked down the pitch before Josh had started running in. To top it off, Andy took a smart catch behind the stumps to remove their number three and Josh ended his excellent spell 3-17 off 5 with what has to be his best bowling all season.
Henrik had maintained the pressure at the other end with several tight overs, including a maiden, and picked up a deserved wicket of his own, reading bowled on the scorecard even if the batter did manage to sweep the ball onto his own stumps.
It only took the captain the entire season to string together a few decent balls, with my first spell of three overs resulting in zero runs and a wicket, although why he tried to pull a ball at knee height I will never know.
Not to be outdone, Zain bowled superbly from the other end, taking a wicket in his first over. Andy, continuing his meteoric rise behind the stumps, managed to add a stumping to his cricketing CV with a really swift piece of keeping, giving Zain his second wicket.
Thoroughly on top, Didsbury turned to the debutant Leila and she was excellent! She kept their well-set batter quiet and very nearly had her first wicket for the Friendlies, dropping a sharp caught and bowled opportunity and having a tight no-ball called against her, which by some miracle Ahmad actually caught! Anthony came on for a couple of overs and bowled some challenging deliveries before the openers came back on to round out the innings.
Both Amjad and Ahmad finally got the wicket that their efforts deserved, with Ahmad’s coming with the final delivery of the match, although on another day they both could have had a handful.
Stockport finished 120-9 from their 35 overs which felt under par, but with the pitch doing a bit and having the most carry than any other in the past few months, nothing to be taken for granted.
Usman and Jimmy opened the batting for his and immediately got stuck into their business, punishing the bad ball and sending it to the boundary. Jimmy in particular quickly picked up the pace of the pitch and hit some lovely shots, including several back foot punches and drives to keep the scoreboard racing along. Keeping Didsbury well above the run rate, Usman fell, bringing Josh to the crease. Continuing where he left off with the ball, he quickly got into his work, picking up the pace of the pitch and running well with Jimmy. On 40, Jimmy fell after his first mistimed shot, and although he was understandably distraught after playing so well, should take real pride in his big contribution to the team for the second week in a row.
After taking a nasty knock to the knee, Josh changed tactic and moved towards a game of boundary or out, with Andy feeding him the majority of the strike. This led to several more crunching boundaries before one shot too many led Josh to depart for 40, but with him and Jimmy having done the vast majority of the work needed to get over the line with only 8 needed to win. Andy continued to play well with Anthony as they took the Friendlies level on 120, where a thick edge from Anthony brought the captain to the crease to score the winning runs.
The irony of this situation, where I failed to get us over the line the week before was not lost on me, but after watch the ball for a few deliveries and clubbed the ball past the bowler for 4 to seal a big victory for the Friendlies.
This was an excellent all-round performance where we were better than the opposition with bat, ball and in the field. Despite a few solid contenders for player of the match, it was impossible to overlook Mr Josh Pinder for the award, who got everything going for Didsbury with the ball with his three wickets and then alongside Jimmy, batted with real clarity and confidence to take Didsbury right up to the finish line. And it was very kind of them both to let the captain finish the game off after last weeks fiasco!