Carib Beer XI vs IBM, Regents Park,

Thursday 17th June 2021

The Caribs gathered for their second game of the season under leaden skies at Regents Park. Remarkably 10 players were in attendance for the start of the match, no doubt feeling suitably admonished via the warning over WhatsApp from Carib Captain Haigh about their tardiness in last week's opening game. We were then soon up to 11 with the arrival of Swanand and we had been boosted by the late recruitment of ringer Mahk. Despite the overnight rains the pitch and outfield were in generally good condition, there was just one problem due to a fault with the Regents Park sprinkler system which had left a damp patch behind the wicket at one end. This issue was resolved with the decision to just bowl from one end.

Martin restored to his true form and promptly lost the toss. IBM skipper Spicer elected to bat primarily as they only had 4 players in attendance at the time, though they were also up to a full 11 before too long. So the Caribs took to the field feeling confident boosted by the tense win against St Peters dad the previous week. The Caribs unleashed a fast bowling barrage reminiscent of the 1970s WI team with opening bowlers Carib Nitin and Carib Archie replaced by equally quick first change bowlers Carib Kant and Ringer Mahk. Caribs Nitin and Swanand carried on their good form taking a clean bowled wicket apiece in this opening barrage. This time the stumps survived intact after being hit by Swanand's full length delivery which was a relief as they were a brand new set of stumps due to the mysterious case of the missing third kit bag. Ringer Mahk was a little unfortunate not to also add a clean bowled to his name but he had a wicket overturned due to the call of no ball, the fact that he hit the top of the stumps on the full being an indicator that the delivery was above waist height. This was a welcome reprieve for the IBM team with their opening bat Mallows taking full advantage playing some good shots including a couple of boundary 4s which was some challenge on the slow outfield. IBM Mallows eventually retiring with a well made 26.

After the opening barrage of fast bowling there was perhaps some relief for IBM with the next bowlers being Carib Skipper Haigh and Carib Moss. However despite the slower pace this didn't mean an end to the wickets with Martin grabbing a wicket via a fine stumping from the usual Carib wicketkeeper Bowen. With no square leg umpire in place this decision was made by both square leg fielder and point fielder in agreement. Carib Moss followed up with a wicket of his own knee sliding down the middle of the wicket to take a caught & bowled chance, leading to the usual calls of "never drop them off your own bowling" and "never see him run like that when anyone else is bowling" etc. IBM boosted their total with a very useful unbroken 5th wicket stand between Groves and Standen leading to a final score of 87. This seemed a little less than expected and perhaps meant that some extras had perhaps been missed...

Due to the bowling from one end tactic the Caribs had raced through their overs which was useful with the usual weather doom mongerers not yet proved correct in their thinking. Sadly today the weather was to prove an issue. The IBM innings started with spots of rain in the air, but after 2 overs this turned into much more persistent rain. The Carib opening batters were Carib Weaver and Ringer Mahk who hit 4 lovely boundaries. Carib Weaver was no slouch with a boundary of his own. However the rain was increasing in its intensity and after 5 overs the game was called off. The rain was too heavy for anyone to think about what this meant in terms of a result. There was some talk of the Duckworth-Lewis method which was then followed up from the dry atmosphere of a noisy Green Man pub (noisy because the Tartan Army were in town for tomorrow's England v Scotland match). A website was located: WCCL Duckworth Lewis Calculator. Using this the following outcome was calculated:

First Innings
Initial Innings Length: 20 overs
Innings ended at 87 for 4 off 20 overs.

Second Innings
Initial Innings Length: 20 overs
Interruption at 39 for 0 off 5 overs. 15 overs lost.
Innings ended at 39 for 0 off 5 overs.

D/L Par score is 17. Score to win is 18
Team batting second wins by 21 runs

So perhaps a slightly hollow victory, but a victory nonetheless and leaving the Caribs with a two wins from two record with a match v Old Boys to come in our next game. Fingers crossed for better weather in 2 weeks time for that game.

Carib Beer XI Win via Duckworth-Lewis method

Scorecard