Seconds stunned by Sri Lankan

Before this week's 2nd XI match report a quiz question. What do Kingsmead Durban, St. Helen's Swansea, Wankhede Stadium Mumbai, North Marine Ground Scarborough and the Gorse Croft Audlem have in common? The answer is to be found below.

On Saturday 6th September Audlem 2nd XI hosted already relegated Appleton 3rd XI who, having won the toss, opted to bat on an excellent wicket. What followed was a one-man show of hard-hitting, aggressive ferocity seldom witnessed in Division 4 of the Cheshire Cricket Alliance.

19 year-old Sri Lankan opener Venshaka hit 207 (yes, two hundred and seven) not out in only his second game, fresh from the London professional league and justified talk of him playing for Surrey's Development squad next season.

Last week he had scored 77 of his team's 88 runs against champions Wilmslow ensuring an 8 wicket victory and this seemingly left him hungry for even more runs as he mercilessly bullied the valiant Audlem attack.

He smashed 14 fours and 19 sixes and, in scoring six sixes in one over, provided the answer to the above quiz question. He even coped admirably with an exploratory underarm delivery which also winged its way skywards and into the adjacent field.

Three spectators who had arrived to watch a pleasant summer's afternoon of cricket spent most of their time positioned in the long grass of the field as spotters for where the ball was going next. Common decency prevents the publication of bowling figures but there are very few bowlers playing a far higher standard of cricket who would have fared any better.

Declaring at 274 for 3 after 35 overs, the game was obviously stone dead as a contest and the only question was whether Audlem could bat 55 overs for a draw, this with only ten men after the departure of the hamstrung Jason Leigh. It was now that the togetherness, guts and team spirit of the home side came to the fore.

Despite losing a wicket to the third delivery of the innings, Zar Ahmed and Dave Parry set about blunting the Appleton attack. As if enough hadn't been seen of him, Venshaka also happened to bowl faster and more accurately than anyone had faced over the past few seasons.

His elder brother Gavaskar – their father was a great fan of Indian cricket – proved no less daunting from the other end. However, this was a task tailor-made for Ahmed, Audlem's player of the season and the Parry, New Zealand enigma, who dug themselves in and withstood the barrage, forcing the visiting skipper to ring the changes in his desperation for wickets.

Despite emptying the ground of the faithful supporters, the two batted with bewildering concentration beyond 30 overs before Zar eventually fell for a priceless 30 and Parry (24) followed soon after having taken the score to 79.

For the other batsmen it was not a matter of scoring runs but spending time at the crease and all played their part in inching towards the 55th over. The skill, application, bloody-mindedness and good humour of the Audlem team in adversity was a joy to behold and, when Roy Wild smashed Venshaka through the covers for four off the last ball of the innings for extra batting points, the cheers were such that they could have heralded a victory.

126 for 7 on the board with effectively only two wickets left, one of those being young Luke Harding, who as long as he plays cricket will probably never experience a day's cricket of the like.

Only 4 points were gained from the draw but the consolation was that there will be no encounter with Saturday's oppressors next season (unless anyone is selected to play against Surrey). The report for the final match of the season against Maritime 2nd XI will follow soon.

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