Aston Rowant, Sunday 11 June 2023.

Heartaches 276-5 (35 overs: Alex Poole 129, Andrew O’Kelly 55*, Amiya Ranjan 2-36) v St Anne’s Allstars 1-0 (0.5 overs). No result.

Allstars Debut: Koushik Saji

Report by Garreth Duncan – Photos by Garreth Duncan and Pete Cresswell

Fresh from our maiden victory of 2023 over Superstars, the Allstars converged on Aston Rowant for one of our marquee fixtures, against Sir Tim Rice’s Heartaches. Sir Tim was out of town this time, but on a scorching day, he missed a good fight between his own batsmen and a committed Allstars attack on a belter of a pitch. But lightning had the final say before the Allstars could get going with our reply.

Amit Deverathippa, leading the Allstars for the first time, won the toss and asked Heartaches to bat first. Pradesh Deveraj, after an excellent debut against Superstars, and Amiya Ranjan, making his first appearance of 2023 after a fine debut season last year, opened up for the Allstars and both generated some lively pace in fine opening spells. Amiya struck first with a peach of a delivery which knocked Vishal Lal’s off stump out of the ground, and next over Pradesh thudded one into Fraser Hutton’s pads and umpire Haroon Khalid’s finger went up. After 8 overs Heartaches were 45-2 and we could be well pleased with our start.

Shanmugam Sama, fresh from his fine spell against Superstars, replaced Pradesh at the far end and grabbed the next wicket, Matt Bowes edging to Amit behind the stumps. But by then Alex “Big Al” Poole was into his stride and, with little if any movement in the air or off the pitch, began to put his foot on the gas, hitting in an arc between mid-wicket and long-off. A few half-chances didn’t go to hand – Amiya and I just avoiding a nasty collision as we went for the same catch – and even with several boundary riders he continued to pile on the runs. David Nandi bowled a decent spell without any luck, and skipper Amit took off his pads and had a bowl himself (much to the confusion of Heartaches’ scorer who claimed he hadn’t been informed). Debutant Koushik Saji and I also had a try, but nothing could stop Poole’s serene progress to a well-deserved hundred. Finally, Amiya’s return removed him as he went for another big hit – Amit taking a well-judged catch at long-off.

With Poole gone, we pulled it back nicely in the last few overs – Pradesh bowling well to the field and restricting a tiring Andrew O’Kelly to singles – though enough to see him through to an unbeaten fifty – and Amiya finishing off a cool run-out of Chris Hutton after a mix-up. Having looked like conceding a score in excess of 300, given the conditions we could be well pleased with our efforts in the field.

Having enjoyed Heartaches’ customary sumptuous tea, we were all ready for the chase as Pete Cresswell and Paul Burgin strode out to open the batting. But the storms had been gathering all afternoon, and just five balls into our reply, the first flash of lightning struck, and everyone quickly got off the field. We waited for an hour hoping the storm would pass – but there was still lightning overhead, and at 6pm we sensibly called a halt.

It’s always a delight to play Heartaches, and a shame we didn’t get to have a go at batting on such a sumptuous surface and chasing the target down. We look forward to playing them again next year – but next up, we have a new opponent to play as we take on Commons Old Boys in an evening T20 on Thursday.