Exciting match ends in gloom
..
The season is off and running. We blew away the cobwebs at Sandhurst in a strange, low scoring game, played on an artificial wicket which surprisingly had very little pace, together with a very slow, large outfield. When we entertained this side at Send last September they made 232-6, and we responded with 234-2. This time they made a modest looking 124 all out, but we struggled to 107-7 to earn a deserved but somewhat deflating draw.
Having
lost the toss again, were asked to bat by Chris Gudgeon the opposition
captain who perhaps had memories of our "batsman friendly" wicket.
Nick, hoping to continue his recent good form, opened the innings with
His Father, who was himself hoping that this might rub off on him. Sadly,
after hitting 3 crisp boundaries in the 8 balls faced, I got a good ball
on leg stump which swung in and was correctly adjudged LBW. With the strength
of my middle order, I was not too concerned but first Edgar was trapped
in front for 8 (not a decision he was happy with but considered by others
to be fair) and then Rob got one that lifted slightly and he gloved it
to short leg. With Doug being bowled for 15 we were struggling again and
although Nick hit about him for 29, with his wicket we were 101/6 on a
good track.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man or in this case men! Justin and Steve
Reece got their heads down and battled away, taking no chances and being
content with an hour and a half of batting time available, to take singles,
byes and the odd nicked boundary. Runs came steadily until both felt sufficiently
confident to go for their shots and when Steve finally fell for a superb
59, his maiden fifty for the club, the score stood at a more respectable
220, a stand of 119. This was a great innings from Steve with some excellent
drives and some very well run singles. Sadly, Justin knowing it was the
last over, went for a big drive and was bowled for 47 but this was a very
welcome return to form and it cheered us all to see his trademark square
drive being re employed once again.
Our attack was opened by Toby and Ian keeping the "father and son"
flavour going but sadly with the same level of success, at least initially,
as the Wrights. The Stoke D'Abernon innings was opened by their 1st XI
batsman who we understand has played top class cricket in India. Certainly,
it was obvious that we needed to get him early. After 3 slightly wayward
overs, Toby settled into a good line and length and persuaded the key
batsman to loft a nice easy chance to yours truly at mid off. I can provide
at least 5 good reasons why this was not as easy as it looked (including
a drop in barometric pressure combined with a strong cross wind) but the
fact remains that it was a simple chance and I dropped it!
Toby then bowled the other opener and then had the no 3 well held at gully
by Rob Symondson. Edgar had by now settled into a good spell and was chipping
away wickets at the other end (finishing up with 3/55) but the opener
remained and with a very fast outfield was scoring pretty freely. It was
becoming obvious that we were not going to bowl them out and as we entered
the last 20 overs, we looked like having a fair chance of earning a draw.
However, their man was just too well set and although he was, for the
last 10 overs, batting in very dark conditions, this hindered the fielders
almost more than him as at least 4 boundaries were scored through the
deep field having absolutely no idea where the ball was. Ian came back
to pick up a wicket, this one held by me, but was then plonked into the
field for 6 and the game was finally lost with one over to go with the
opener on 128 not out.
Although another match was lost, this was a great game played very hard
but in a really good friendly spirit and I think we would all prefer to
lose such games tightly than win by 8 or 9 wickets. Catches win matches
but they also lose matches and never was this more true as in all honesty,
it really didn't look like we had much to fear from any of their other
batsmen.