Ottershaw & Hamm Moor vs Frimley Green Cricket Club - Sunday 21st July 2019, 14:00

In recent times FGCC have been involved in their fair share of close games, one of these being against Ottershaw in 2018 when Anurag and Sheshi snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a mighty 10th wicket stand. However, even that remarkable result was eclipsed by the events of this year’s encounter. Losing the toss and being invited to bat in this timed game, FGCC openers Tim and Mark walked to the wicket, with the latter returning to the pavilion before the first over was even completed having been run out by Tim for a diamond duck. To say Mark was somewhat nonplussed about this was an understatement, and as the Vice Captain started to analyse stats and hatched a plan to enforce a squad-wide regime of running-and-calling practice Tim and Lloyd started to rebuild, putting on 59 before (with a bit of poetic justice) Tim hesitated to run a single, turned back and was caught out of his ground himself. With Lloyd, Ajay and Pavan getting starts before being dismissed and the score 94-5 FGCC’s batting could have crumbled, but fortunately all-rounder Dean was having none of it and decided to grab the initiative. Dominating a 29-run partnership with Sheshi and a 39-run 7th wicket stand with Simon (who batted well for a club-best 17), Carr-nage reigned, despite erstwhile FGCCer (and now sponsor of shirt sleeves) Vamsi spilling a caught-and-bowled chance and having Dean dropped at mid-on. With Jim irritating some OHMCC players for not declaring sooner, FGCC decided to play out their innings in full, Dean finally falling for a well-made 45 before the innings closed on 190. After another fab Ottershaw tea the oppo had limited time to go for the win, and decided to attack from the off. This proved to be the undoing of Mumford, Bhabra and Verma, all of whom getting caught after playing aggressive shots. With FGCC in the ascendancy, OHMCC batsmen Happy Birdi and Tyrone Sarucan decided enough was enough, and started taking the Frimley Green bowling to task, taking Ottershaw to 119-3 with 12 overs left to bowl, and both bringing up their 50s in quick time. With the match on a knife-edge despite Tyrone tweaking a hamstring whilst attempting a run, FGCC needed a breakthrough after a couple of drops, and got one when a fractured partnership between opening batsmen was repaired when Mark took a sharp catch behind the stumps off Tim’s bowling to dismiss the now unhappy Happy Birdi. Tyrone however continued in spite of his injury, and when Jim spilled him at cover it could have been the end of FGCC’s chances. However, a leading edge gave Dean a simple return catch, and at 5 down with overs running out this timed game seemed to be heading for a draw... ...or so FGCC thought with 5 overs to go. With Vamsi coming out to bat intent to be the hero, he was run out by Mark (which cost him a lift home). Sheshi came back and with his first ball bowled a perfect slower ball to castle Ilyas, and then in the penultimate over trapped Goddard LBW. Ottershaw now needed 15 to win, and FGCC 2 wickets. Into his 9th straight over, Dean was tasked with the job to see Frimley Green to the line, knowing that he had Ottershaw skipper and ‘king of the blockers’ Steve Clarke blocking a potential path to victory. With phase one of the plan out the way - Ali Sheikh being trapped LBW - Clarke had 4 balls to face, which given his track record seemed a simple task. However Dean wasn’t phased, and with men crowded round the bat bowled an off-cutter to demolish Clarke’s stumps on the final ball of the match, instantly becoming FGCC’s very own Ben Stokes the week after England’s World Cup win. The getting hammered for 4 6s off an over is yet to come thankfully, but Dean’s piece of magic sparked jubilant scenes not seen since... well, the match here last year - and gave FGCC their best season for wins since 2011 with plenty of cricket left to play this summer. FUN FACT - during this game, and a week after the controversial ‘was-it-5-or-6-runs’ boundary in the World Cup Final, Tim Jones scored a 5 in this game (1, 4 overthrows). According to the FGCC stats department, this has never happened before for Frimley Green.