Egham 173-6, Windsor 143

Egham 173-6

Windsor 147 a/o

Windsor 2’s blew the cobwebs of the winter off with what is now  the annual curtain raiser against our near neighbours Egham with the Mangat brothers Sim and Kurrnan and Vishal Strivastava all making their Windsor CC debuts.

A 45 over (9 overs maximum bowler) game was agreed and on winning the toss, Egham elected to bat on a green, but good looking wicket for time of the season.  Chris Edge opened up with Usman Ahmed and although both were putting it in the right area’s, they soon found out anything short would be put away.  Eghams openers gave little away apart from a sharp chance off his own bowling from Edge and Egham survived the opening spell to set up their innings.  Sim Mangat was brought into the attack and he immediatly brought some control with a probing length and guile in the flight and he was joined by the 6ft 5inch Strivastava, who once his limbs were warmed up put through some testing deliveries and Egham found it hard to score and despite a Mangat brother bowled and caught combination, they ultimately kept their wickets intact which would be the foundation to build on.  Kevin Das showed what a very good prospect he is with the ball and his off-spin actually complimented Windsor’s No#1 all rounder Paul Huggins as they bowled out the overs against an increasingly aggressive Egham attack that closed the 45 overs on 173-6 .

It’s not often a tea gets any lines in a match report but it would be remiss of me not to mention Egham’s.  Their tea lady’s went above and beyond and I may even go as far as saying they could be giving our own teas at Windsor a run for their money.

Doye and Noble opened up for Windsor and both were cautious against the new ball although runs were at a premium.  As the Innings progressed Windsor were always behind the rate and it wasn’t helped by Ray Borg playing possibly the worst shot of his life to be followed up by Richard Noble getting the best ball of his life and Windsor faced an uphill battle.  The Mangat brothers looked very solid (and classy) getting Windsor needing 5 an over off the last 10 overs with 5 wickets in hand, but when the collapse came it was sudden and fatal as Windsor ended up all out considerably short of the target.

This was a good opening game of the season against a great set of lads and hopefully for both sides a start to a successful season.