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Last updated 16-Jun-2009.
Match Report
Saturday saw us go to Southern Gardens to face Totton & Eling II. Minus our skipper Freddie (side strain) and carrying a few other injuries, Si (thigh), Jocky (side), Jewelly (ill) and Dayer (arm, leg, foot) we still went with the belief we could record our second win. Vice capt Pete did his first job right, winning the toss and having a bat.
Dayer and Squidge opened as usual, posting a century partnership. They both played really well, putting the bad ball away. Dayer hit 50 first (71 balls) before being lbw to Rawlins for 51 (82). They put on 116 in 24 overs. Si reached 50 soon after (66 balls) before Pete (with a hamstring tweak while ruuning a single) fell caught for 3. Si was joined by Jocky before he was brilliantly caught at mid off for 61 (78). Myself and Jocky then put on 69 inside 11 overs. Jock hit his 50 from just 43 balls and was starting to open up when he was caught behind for 64 (53). I fell after Sammy Free and I put on 20 in 2 overs for 30. Despite us losing 3 wickets to the last 3 balls of the innings, Sam 30 (21), Reading 9, Jewell 0, we posted 270-8 from our 50. This was comfortably our highest total of the season.
After some smashing tea's, especially the freshly cooked sausage rolls we went about winning the game. Pete spoke about doing something special in the field, ie a great catch or a run out.
This was how the first wicket fell. I almost grabbed a sharp diving chance at gully, with Matty picking the ball up and throwing down the stumps at the bowlers end. This all followed 2 really good opening spells from Tom and Pete. Pete opened because Radski was away and Jewelly being so important to us as a change bowler. He found a lot of swing, moving it away from 2 left handed openers. We even employed a 8-1 field. Tom bowled really well again, going for only 13 in his first 6 overs. They ticked along to 70-1 after 17 overs before Keith, in his second over, combined with his brother to have Winters caught for 40. We waited until the 26th over for the third wicket. After Keith dished McDermott up a half tracker, which he duly dispatched to the mid wicket boundary, he served up another. For some reason, instead of repeating the shot he tried to hit it over cover, Matty took the straight forward catch. Jewelly yorked West followed by another direct hit from Si to get rid of Jenkins (34). Keith got 2 more to finish with figures of 4-45. Agha, promoted from the 2's, bowled a good spell (0-46). He bowled as well as Keith, but didn't get any rewards. After Tom came back for a quick 2 over burst to try and finish it (8-0-23-0), I snuck on to bowl Edens. Jewelly finished it off, bowling Metcalfe and running out Rawlins, finding him out of his ground after deflecting the ball onto the stumps.
A really good win, by 68 runs. Batting was excellent. Its not surprising that our 3 best batting performances has been when we have layed down a solid foundation. Well done to Colin and Si. Bowling was good also. Tom has bowled really well the last 3 weeks. Ag's done a good job on his return and Keith got wickets, hopefully giving him more confidence to get back being our attacking bowler again. Fielding was about 80%. Although we had 3 run outs, we put down 4 half chances (myself guilty of 2) and maybe against the better sides, we may be punished. US Portsmouth next week, confidence should be back so lets push for 2 on the bounce.
