Chancellor Rishi raises interest rates

When is it not an interesting week selection-wise?

Approximately 700 juniors were sounded out for their availability by the 2s and 3s this week and approximately 695 were NOT AVAILABLE for about 10,000 reasons. So a side that was long on batting, thankfully, and which necessitated placing responsibility on to the shoulders of various young bowlers took the field (as that's what the pitch is at Metropolitan, Bushey, is.)

Reverting to the winning formula of batting, posting a score and setting the bowlers to work on a deteriorating track worked again: although at 40-odd for 4 it looked a bit iffy. It was another feature of our wins this season, that the middle order gets the runs after the top order struggles, that kicked in now - this time it was Rishab aka The Chancellor (Rishi) in the lead, with David 'Neil' Wagner the support act doing the hard yards.

The partnership was over 50 when David got an LBW from injured umpire Steve (injured in the eyes, some said) but Rishi carried on serenely driving over and through extra and soon passed his personal 50. Skipper Ahsan can't catch a break with the bat however, probably because of all the admin he does trying to get the good juniors in the side, and being disappointed because they have COVID, or have county games, or are just unavailable for other equally genuine reasons.

Rishab's 70 with 9x4 was a superb knock, the highest individual score for the 3s this year,

The long batting line-up proved its worth with a massive flourish from Gayan and Tom, who both got into the 30s (G 38, Tom 31*) and with a lot of help from Extras we posted 217-8 from our 45, an excellent recovery from the doldrums.

The two experienced bowlers, Gayan and Eklavya, took the new ball, and Gayan swung it and Eklavya made it bounce, getting several nicks that evaded the close catchers. Soon however both openers were back in the hutch, Gayan bowling no.1 neck and crop, and no.2 falling to a superb one-handed slip catch from Simon.

The senior guy at 3 dug in for the long haul, but wickets fell regularly, with change-ups Eddie, Abhinay and Rishab all picking up wickets by virtue of bowling straight and getting back-up from top catcher George who took 3 at mid-off. The young guys bowled longer spells and this can only have helped them find rhythm, as all bowled their best spells in senior cricket - Eddie 9-0-20-2, Abhinay 8-0-13-1, Rishab 8-0-33-1. However G and X stepped into Steve's shoes and barely gave away a thing, leading from the front with 9-4-15-3 and 9-3-16-1 respectively.

We can only beat what's in front of us and beat 'em we did, sterner tests arrive very soon and the hope has to be that a strong team is available to take those tests. Onwards and upwards, back to joint top!