Rain Wins at the Barracks

A green and dampened wicket at the Barracks survived the overnight rain and the match went ahead. This lead to the inevitable bowl first decision which we took as we won the toss.

Ted and Sophie opened which got us off to a great start as Sophie took a wicket in her first over as we bowled tight lines. The opposition started to bat more aggressively after a watchful first few overs. This helped the run rate but a couple more wickets (one for each) fell, so when Ted and Sophie finished their spells it was 64-3 off 14 overs. Kafait and Rob Noble stepped up next and Kafait also struck in his first over. The runs and wickets continued to flow as a mixture of aggressive batting, some mixed bowling and sloppy fielding allowed the total to build to 141-6 off 29 overs. Zac stepped up to claim one big hitting batsman and Beggers joined in to claim another as the theme of the innings continued. Ted also returned to claim a further wicket. The score finished on 201 from 39 overs and the wickets were well spread across the six bowlers (Sophie, Ted, Kafait & Beggers took 2 with Rob and Zac taking 1).

The total felt too many but given the boundaries were short, the aggressive style of their deep batting order combined with the extra six overs we claimed and our own long batting lineup the game was far from lost. More rainy weather was approaching, however, so it did not look likely we could finish.

Nabil and Dan opened up again and made a good start before Nabil fell in the fourth over with the score on 14. Beggers joined Dan and a platform was being well formed before Dan found midwicket on 21 (43-2) and a mini collapse followed with Martin and Beggers falling to leave the score 56-4 from 20 overs. Some light rain had come and gone whilst the game continued and a new partnership of Eddie and Rob was required to build once again. Both settled in well and when the rain returned conditions were very tricky for the fielding side and predominantly slow bowling was in use. This was capitalised upon as the score became 99-4 from 26.4 overs when the rain became heavier and conditions unplayable. After 5-10 minutes of being off the field, the game was abandoned and the points pretty much shared as we received 10 and Normanby Park 11.

We are back on the road again next week as we travel to East Halton in a must win game against a team at the bottom of the table if we want to consolidate the recent form and position in the third division.

Matt Brett