The legend of Grayson is still alive

Mannofield 4th XI arrived at Huntly Cricket Ground with 9 players only. Skipper Grayson won the toss and elected to field. Huntly were kind enough to allow 2 of their kids to field for us. Unfortunately bowling options were limited. Callum Herd and Faheem Awan bowled the opening spell. Though there were no early wickets but runs were not easy to come by. J. Squire and R. Ghandi were pilling up runs steadily. Huntly were 28/0 after 10 overs.

Huntly's Captain R. Ghandi retired to allow another batsman to take the crease. D. Alexander started aggressively but fell prey to Callum's good length bowling. R. Howe arrived in the middle and it was not long after that the ball was landing out of the park with pretty much every strike of the bat. R. Howe dominated the bowlers with his powerful hitting.

Dave Grayson was quick to react and moved his car out of the car park during the drinks; which was becoming the common landing place for the Howe's sixes. With his car out of the way, Grayson decided to do the magic with his spin bowling. Howe dispatched a few more but one skier went straight to Awan fielding at the deep mid-wicket boundary. R. Howe scored 78. This was a critical wicket and it didn't take long for other batsmen to collapse. Dave Grayson picked up 5 wickets. Rob Brereton bowled well to clean up the tail. Huntly set a target of 163.

Huntly were all out with-in 32 overs, hence, leaving 58 overs for Mannofield to chase. Dave and Blair opened the batting. Blair was caught out in the first over while trying to clear the cover boundary. Rob walked in to support Dave at this stage. Both batted sensibly and took the total to 72. Rob lofted one in the air and that was end of his innings. He scored 26. Pardeep arrived next but was a victim of a mix up; ending up in a run out. Sanjay was the next batsman in. Dave missed a straight one on to his pads and was given LBW. Dave scored 49 and Mannofield were 87/4 at this point.

Mannofield were in need of a desperate partnership to come back in to the game again. Sanjay and Faheem provided this. Sanjay demonstrated great nerves and batted sensibly. Awan dispatched a few to the boundary but partnership was built around singles and doubles mostly. Soon Huntly side went very quiet in the field who were chirping a bit too much after Grayson's fall. Victory was in sight but unfortunately Sanjay was trapped LBW after scoring 17 runs.

Mannofield were 140/5 with 3 wickets in hand and only 23 runs were required. Craig Wheaton and Michael Zanre were unable to stay there for long enough to support Awan to finish off the game. Callum Herd arrived as the last man. This was a moment when we really wished that we should had a 11 man squad. Awan decided to go a gear higher to get the remaining runs quickly. But this didn't end in the desired results and he was stumped after scoring 32 runs. Mannofield collapsed 16 runs short of the target.

Though game ended in a disappointment but a 9 player squad showed amazing fighting spirit on the field. Highlight was the Grayson's 5 wickets and then 49 runs with the bat. He proved to everyone and more importantly to himself that there is a lot of cricket left in him. Neither the silver hair nor the dawn of age can defeat the spirit of a passionate cricketer. It's all in the heart.