Victory Vs the Gunners

The Royal Artillery won the toss and chose to bat.
Conditions were sunny, with clouds and scattered showers.
The pitch was dry and slow, having been used the week before.

Borton and Santimon opened up and bowled with good pace on a less than seamer-friendly surface. Borton struck early with a quick short ball that took the RA opening bat by surprise and was caught smartly by Mitra at square leg.
The RA steadily built and were 26-1 after six overs when the first shower came. This delay meant the game had to be cut short and both captains decided on 35 overs per side.
Resuming, the batsmen, on a wicket that had took some rain, quickly got the score ticking and we realised that spin and medium-pace were the order of the day.
Parry came onto bowl and bamboozled the RA batsmen, he was easily the pick of all the bowlers and by some margin, ending up with figures of seven overs, two maidens, three wickets for twelve runs. Omkar Khot and Mitra Singh who finished with three wickets supported well as the RA batsmen tried to free their arms, which in turn created many chances...
Those chances did not equal wickets, with more than a handful of catches dropped. This resulted in the RA getting an extra 60 -70 runs. A feilding performance to forget.
The Royal Artillery 161 all out.

Yadav and King opened up and the HAC reply got off to a pretty terrible start. King stumped down the leg side and Yadav bowled in the space of an over. Sherlock and Parry were up next, but Parry fell after smashing a six to leave skipper Casey to try and steady the ship. After a few tentative overs, the rain came again and we were off for another break.
The sun was back and Casey managed to get into his stride. Sherlock and Jones were dismissed leaving Jack Huxtable, batting at number seven to save the day and the HAC's unbeaten run. A magnificent seventy one not out, including some glorious cover drives and pulls for six, was the match-winning innings we needed. Ably supported by a bustling Khot innings.
With the rate barely going above fives, the victory never really seemed in doubt, however, we left it late and managed to just sneak home with three balls to spare.

A good victory and one that means the HAC 1XI are now eighteen months unbeaten.

P.S. A special mention to Bob our Groundman, who worked tirelessly to move coves and sightscreens all day by himself. Unfortunately, were are not able to help, given the new restrictive guidelines.