Noun: Captain's knock Definition: An exemplary innings by a captain for his team.

It was another beautiful day for cricket for Saturday’s visit of Marple to Cromley Road, which meant those in attendance could rightly expect another high scoring affair. Due to a football match taking place in north west London, both sides were missing a few regular faces and for Georgians this meant five changes from the win against Alvanley. In came Toby Jones and Fahad Bashir for their first appearances for the 2nd XI this season; with Jonah Wall, Indra Patel and Aidan Francis returning to the side after featuring previously.

After winning the toss, this season’s formula for success of chasing at home meant an easy choice for captain Dodd who elected to field. An initial spell of parsimonious bowling from opening pair Joe Friel and Jonah Wall made for a cagey start to the Marple innings from Crisall and Cox. However the unforgiving outfield meant that an over or two of inside edges, top edges and slight leg glances led to a flurry of boundaries. This forced a change in the bowling by bringing Saul Ashton into the attack to try and replicate his match turning spell from the previous week. It was Friel however who ended the opening stand of 59, when a mistimed shot by Cox was caught easily by Wall at mid wicket for 21 runs.

Unfortunately for Georgians with the experienced Crisall still at the crease, who had started to hit the seamers with increasing confidence. Dodd opted for a double spin change of Iftikhar Hussain and regular wicketkeeper Carlos Wakefield (who this week was being ably deputised by Toby Jones). This was short lived as the pair were seemingly bowling from the wrong ends, so Sam Bailey stepped into the one over role usually taken by Rhys Kibble and bowled a tight over of leg spin which number three Schofield struggled to get away. This allowed the pair to switch to their preferred ends and as the scorecard showed later, this was to prove a fruitful decision in the end.

With Crisall changing tact in the ‘nervous nineties’ and playing with more caution, Georgians sensed a chance and brought the field right in which led to the unfortunate demise of Crisall who limply chipped a drive off Wakefield to Chris Dodd at mid off for the wretched score of 99. The fall of this wicket at 155 for 2 and then the wicket of the watchful Schofield for 59 to Carlos at 195 for 3 led to a period of sustained pressure from the fielding side. Subsequently the batting innings came to a grinding halt after looking like they could have made 250 plus. The continued pressure and tight lines from Hussain led to four quick wickets all in a similar fashion, with Braddock, Nuttall, Lloyd and Bradley all bowled for single figures by Ifti. Only Greasley’s lusty blows down the ground in his 22* offered anything resembling a plan towards the end of the Marple innings of 228 for 7 from their 50 overs. Hussain was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4 for 49 from his overs, which now sees him lead the division’s bowling leaderboard with 20 wickets from 7 games.

After a mid innings break where discussions ranged from plane watching to Nihilism, attention turned to the tricky run chase where Dodd was without regular partner Kilbride who had gone into the 1st XI after a run of good form. Up stepped Toby Jones who was efficient and compact with his work in a well crafted 25 from 36 balls, but most importantly he ran well with his captain in an opening stand of 63. Next in at 3 was Carlos Wakefield who was in fine fettle after some early season form and after working to get the score to 92, was dismissed in rather bizarre circumstances. For most watching the feeling was that the wicket just did not look ‘right’ as there was a significant amount of ricochet between keeper, ball and bails. Upon watching back on frogbox it appears that the keeper took the bails with his gloves but at the time Wakefield was given his marching orders for 9 and Sam Bailey was next in. Some weeks ago Bailey had arrived at the crease with a similar score against Timperley on the board and constructed a counter attacking innings but this was not to be the case this time and was caught at mid wicket leaving the run chase carefully poised at 103-3.

Marple had however not managed to dislodge skipper Dodd and at this point he had mercilessly punished the usually proficient left arm spin bowling of opposition captain Hirst to bring up his half century with a strong sweep shot. As discussed earlier it was Fahad Bashir’s first bat for the 2nd XI this season but he was not fazed by this fact, as he opened his account with a straight six off the bowling of the aforementioned Hirst. This was to be an indicator of how this ultimately match winning partnership of 126* was to go, as both batters interspersed good running with some powerful boundary hitting. Most significantly of these Chris Dodd brought up his second century of the season so far with a magnificent six on 99 and in a cruel twist of fate was off the bowling of Crisall who himself Dodd had caught on 99. Not to be outshone Bashir brought up his own milestone of 50 on the way to a supporting act of 63*.

Captain Dodd’s unbeaten 123 not out (a career best) was to prove the match winning knock and a timely return to form following a similar undefeated century on the opening day. The winning runs came in the 43rd over and at a canter when you consider the size of the total set by Marple. Finally it was another win at home which means a 100% winning record at home so far and keeps Georgians in 1st place with an increased lead of 20 points to Timperley in 2nd place (who could only draw) and 34 points to 3rd. An away trip to 7th placed Alderley Edge is the next fixture, who seem to be putting on a little run of form in recent weeks.