Having lost the toss and fielded, Vaibhav(8-1-47-0) and Sajid(8-1-48-1) opened the attack as Little Missenden steadily accumulated runs on a flat-ish track. Jitender(5-0-28-0) and the impressive Hrishi(8-0-43-1) were next up keeping the scoring rate in check. Atiksh(4-0-31-0) got some useful overs in as Akshay(4-0-32-0) got the rust off his little used shoulder this season. Gaurav(3-0-29-2) closed out their innings picking up a couple of wickets as the returning Hrishi bowled the final overs from the other end with the total ending up on 274-4. Dhir was impressive with the gloves, taking 2 catches and a stumping as well as standing up to most of the bowling at the same time. 

In reply, the slightly variable bounce made scoring difficult for the openers as Gaurav (5) mistimed one early on. Akshay nicked a rising ball to the keeper and then Jitender joined Paul. Jitender and Paul took the score to 110 before Jitender was out for a well earned 54. Vaibhav(9) and Aarav(4) added a few runs and Paul was eventually caught and bowled one handed off a shot looked like it was heading for the 4 column in the scorebook. Dhir was a last minute replacement for Samir, recruited by Jitender and when he came out to bat it looked like we were heading for a 3 figure run loss. Jitender said Dhir was a ‘decent batter’ and I think we’d now all agree on that one. The wicket suddenly looked very different as he plundered 71 not out in the final 5 or so overs. Sajid did a great job keeping up with the running on his way to 10 not out.

Just over 50 runs short in the end and another highly enjoyable game against Little Missenden.