June 5th - The 2s enjoy Egham teas and a win
After the 1s picked up their first win of the season last week, this week it was the turn of the 2s, who travelled over to Egham in search of some decent tea and maximum points.
The day didn’t start well as some classic M25 problems meant we forfeited the toss and were sent into bat. Cobbett and Mugridge stood firm early on but runs seemed hard to come by as Egham’s opening bowlers hit good lengths and gave nothing away. When Cobbett fell with the score 21-1, Self came to the crease and made Dom Sibley look like AB De Villiers, boring both teams to tears. With the score at 53-3, with Self and Khan dismissed, we still had 20 overs to try and post a competitive score. Some quick runs from Clarke (19),Barton (21) and Cook (14) helped up the run rate but we were bowled out for what seemed to be a below par 143, and Egham were the happier of the two sides at the halfway point.
We filled our boots at tea, so movement was limited in the field in the first 10 overs of Egham’s reply. But who needs to move when Mike Asbury is bowling? Mike decimated the Egham top order with three quick wickets, before ‘deliberately’ dropping a caught and bowled onto the stumps at the non-strikers end to run out another poor Egham batsman. Mike finished his 10 overs with figures of 3-13, while Zac Morgan bowled fantastically well from the other end, finishing with figures of 1-12 form his 10 overs. Egham desperately needed a partnership to get their run chase back on track, but Rohan Patel (2-29) and captain Cook (1-20) bowled tight lines and picked up crucial wickets. Self (2-31) managed to pick up the last two wickets with the help of good catching from Bradwell and Clarke, rounding off a fantastic bowling and fielding effort as we claimed our first win of the season.
Sadly, the 1s couldn’t follow up last week’s win, despite getting into a great position against league leaders Chertsey. Bowling first, we took an early wicket and Patel (1-34),and Ives (1-27) kept things tight. Malhotra - pictured - (4-12) then came on and put us in the driving seat. He trapped their opener LBW and had their no.3 out hit-wicket 3. Off spinner Sabesan (2-17) also bowled well and we had 66-7. Unfortunately, our gamble to pick only 4 frontline bowlers backfired, as the Chertsey lower order then feasted on some inconsistent bowling from Sales and Brady and ended up on what proved to be a decent 155-9. Our reply got off to a slow but solid start., before both Miles and Piggin (19) both fell with the score on 27. Malhotra (19) looked to up the run-rate alongside Warne (29),and we weren’t out of it at 60-2. However, attempts to increase the run-rate ended in another batting collapse, and we fell to 103 all out.
The 3s hosted Beddington and after winning the toss and electing to bat, Harish Rajkumar (29) and captain Khan (30) batted well to take Mids to 66-1. The middle order collapsed and we slipped to 90-6, before Steve Godfrey hit a quick fire 46 (including 2 sixes) to get us up to 156 off 45 overs. Unfortunately it proved to not be enough, as the Beddington batsmen looked very good and batted well. One of the openers made 68, and despite 2 wickets for Aarav Ganguli, they chased down the target only 3 down with over 10 overs to spare off 34.4 overs.
It was a similar story for the 4s, who travelled to Merton and had another day to forget. Merton won the toss and elected to bat in an attempt to tire the 4s out in the hot midday sun. This worked out well as they scored 178-4 off their 40 overs. In reply Mids, only Fraser (19) showed any real resistance as we were bowled out for a disappointing 51, including 6 ducks! Onwards and upwards next week though.
