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Today marked the beginning of a four-day stretch of games for the Fords. After breakfast, we made our way to Sunbury Cricket Club for a 40-over fixture. A short bus ride took us to this beautiful cricket ground, which has hosted county cricket matches in the past. We then began our warm-ups while coach Kahn reminisced about playing at the ground with the US National team on one of their tours.
Winning the toss, Captain Rebecca Stern made the bold choice to bowl first. This paid almost immediate dividends, as co-captain Eugene Yang swung the ball past the batsman allowing Stern to complete a rare and Careyesque stumping off a fast bowler.
From here, the Fords furious bowling did not let up. Coming off his five-wicket haul, Ishpuneet Singh again caused carnage, clean bowling three batsman for an economical spell of 3-24. Mohanish Bajaj followed Singh, taking two wickets of his own. His filthy spin—made even filthier by the grass wicket—clean bowled the three batsman, while Sanil Kagalwala made an impressive catch at point, diving to his left and using all 6'6" of reach to safely take the catch. Kagalwala would later take another catch off his own bowling.
Sitting at 130-odd for 8, Haverford was salivating at the prospect of chasing a low total. Sunbury, however, started a brisk recovery. Their eighth batsman scored a quick 30 runs. In a clever bit of captaining, Josh Corbett was brought back into the attack for his second over. The very first ball of this spell was sent high into the air, with the swirling vortex of English wind turning a routine catch into an impressive bit of fielding by Stern.
Sadly for the Fords, this was the last of their wickets. Sunbury's tail-end achieved a remarkable recovery, eventually setting the Fords a total of 211 to win.
Unused to the turf wickets, Haverford struggled in their chase. Sidd Phatak and Bajaj managed totals of 21 and 31 respectively. However the remainder of the team was dismissed cheaply, well below the total required to win.
Upon arrival at our accommodations, the entire team proceeded to the local Pizza Express and drowned our sorrows in grease and cheese. The camaraderie and wonderful experiences we shared more than made up for any losses we suffered on the pitch.