St Michael’s opens cricket season with convincing win

St Michael’s cricket team started the season in fine style with a convincing 26 run victory over St John’s in Greenwich Park on June 6.

But it didn’t always look that way. Batting first after winning the toss on a warm but cloudy afternoon, the tight St John’s attack pinned them back at first, and only three runs were on the board after five overs and two wickets down.

Then Hugh and Dan began to pull things round with an unbroken stand of 48 runs which only ended when Hugh was forced to retire under local rules with his score at 30 – just after he had hit the only six of the game.

Dan also made his way to a stylish 30 and retired, and then the middle order rallied convincingly to push the score to 129 for 5 after the allotted 25 overs, with Ian remaining 22 not out.

However, St Michael’s accurate bowling and tight fielding turned the match their way, and St John’s never recovered from being reduced to 13 for 4 in the sixth over. Four bowlers shared the wickets during the innings with two apiece for Jamie, Roy and Barny, while Dan took three wickets. Hugh and captain Richard held two smart catches.

The only St John’s batsman to offer stiff resistance was Charles who scored the regulation 30 runs, then retired and came back as last man in when the ninth wicket fell. He immediately smote two more fours but was then run out by a smart direct hit from Roy to end the match, with St John’s all out for 103 after 23.2 overs.