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On a cool and blustery Thursday night, the Holy X 1st XI took on Westquarter at Arbo Rd in a T20 match.

For possibly the first time this season and possibly in my Holy X career, we had 11 men changed and ready to go before the opposition had a full squad at the ground.

A rather late 6:30 start with Westquarter batting, saw  2 maidens in a row from the opening partnership of Bonfield and Bainbridge. The third over broke that pattern with Shannon going for 14 runs, including 2 wides signalled by the Westquarter skipper, who also happend to be batting at the same time.

Shannon took the first wicket, a straightforward chance to Si Pickering, finishing with 1-15 off 3 overs. He was replaced by Raja who bowled very well again and ended with 2-14 off his 4!

The Cross fielding effort left a lot to be desired, with more than the usual number of catches being dropped and not even attempted. Newman managed to clutch a brace of catches, as did Pickering.

Charlie chipped in with a good spell of 3-15, which started with him being hit for a huge 6 over mid-on off the first ball he bowled. Vik also picked up 2-31 off 4 overs and yet again complained about his sore back. I also rolled the arm over and finally managed to hit the stumps with the penultimate ball of my third over, finishing with 1-4.

Westquarter finished 96 for 9 off their 20 overs.

Owais and Raja set about the run chase in a cautious fashion, with Westquarter opening up with a very handy leggie who finished with figures of 1-6 off his 4 overs. Owais was the first man to fall for 1 in the 3rd over with the score at 12.

In came Charlie and he and Raja set about providing the Westquarter fielders with some catching practice, for once this season I think the opposition put down more chances than us! There were also a number of near run outs and not taking singles when an easy run was on. The pair seemed desperate to bat out the 20 overs and make as hard work of it as possible, with our run rate dropping to just 3.2 at the end of the 9th over!

However the boys picked things up from the 10th over and Raja fell just short of another milestone, bowled for 47 in the 16th over with just 10 runs required for victory.

I joined Charlie at the wicket and managed to slap one behind square for 4 off the first and only ball I faced. Charlie then eased us home hitting 8 runs of the first 2 balls of the 18th over to finish on a respectable 39* and taking Holy Cross to 99-2!

On to the next round with a comfortable victory.