Not just back-to-back wins, but BIG back-to-back wins!

Savour these Salix days, for a week after comfortably defeating one traditional opponent, the Demijohns, we went one better in despatching another, the Whalers, by eight wickets and plenty of overs to spare. This when chasing what appeared to be a daunting 241 in 35 overs, against a team we hadn’t beaten in some years, in Sai’s first game as skipper.

Clinical batting was the key, Abs was the latest newcomer off Sai’s production line and played some big shots coming in at one before falling just short of a half century. Whatever Sai is doing to find these players, or whether he is just 3D-printing them, long may it continue. Raj as the other opener then carried on all the way to another classy century, yet again an example of the powers of the healthy approach to cricket as demonstrated by our briefly watching sainted founder Lord Fletcher of Brentford. CK in at three completed an equally accomplished half century leaving your aged correspondent to come in and watch some wides go by to get us over the line. 

Maybe it would have been different if Raj hadn’t been dropped early in his innings, but our own fielding was hardly exemplary. Indeed the Whalers were at 80 without loss after nine overs, which was about when Rich joined us in the field and promptly dropped a couple of chances. Fortunately CK and Andy Spurr would take a couple of wickets apiece, and even a late Whalers flurry of runs proved insufficient.

Is this the Salix I have known and loved for 29 seasons of cricketing mediocrity? Stay tuned to see whether a new lean mean winning machine has emerged…