5s
Matches
Sat 11 Jun 2022  ·  Division 9 South Central
Earlswood Cricket Club
5s
114/4
111/9
Bablake CC - 4th XI
WCL 3s maintain unbeaten start

WCL 3s maintain unbeaten start

Neil Thorne13 Jun 2022 - 12:35
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Earlswood came out on top in a decent match between two teams made up predominantly of "senior" players and youngsters

This was the team's first game at our new "home" ground in Meriden. An artificial track was a first for several and took some getting used to. The outfield was perhaps a tad longer than ideal which meant a bit more running that usual but the same for both sides.

The visitors Bablake won the toss and on a day with mixed weather decided to have a bat first. Earlswood opened up with Neil Thorne and Rishaan Singh. The former made the early breakthrough with a double-wicket maiden in the 3rd over. The Bablake skipper Nagaraja Bommanapalli was a little unlucky treading on his stumps to a full delivery but Earls were happy to see the back of him after some recent scores (5/2).

Tight bowling from both ends really built up the pressure and Gare lead a charmed life with a number of dropped catches spoiling what was otherwise a good ground-fielding performance. Earlswood's rhythm was broken when Holly Whitfield had to leave injured with what subsequently turned out to be a cracked finger bone when attempting a caught and bowled. This did make the game 10-a-side so evened things out a little. The batters took advantage of the delay and pushed on afterwards before finally succumbing to the leg spin of Mohammed Salam who bamboozled both in quick succession reducing Bablake to 87-4. Natasha Smitten took a smart catch behind for one of them and Rishaan took a good grab running backwards for the other. An impressive debut from Mo and he wasn't finished there.

Sid Davies struggled initially with his length but once sorted he proved a right handful getting extra bounce. Sid was next to take a wicket with a smart caught and bowled of the dangerous to complete his first spell at this level (95-5). Archy Lowe replaced Sid and was also soon amongst the wickets which began to fall quickly at both ends. Archy clean bowled Tamber and was followed in the next over by another for Mohammed with a good running catch by Tash from behind the stumps (100/7).

It only took two more overs to finish off the tail with Archie picking up another couple of wickets. First Will Bicknell held on to a catch and then Archy fooled the batter with a very good slower ball that knocked over the stumps and the visitors were all out for 111.

Tash opened up with Kevin Price for Earls and the pair made a decent start running well between the wickets and putting on 24 in the first 7 overs. Gare then found his length though and quickly removed Kev, Tash and Will leaving us at a precarious 33-3. However, the calm head of Paul Fitzgerald (26*) was just what was required in the circumstances and together with Sid the pair put on 47 for the next wicket taking advantage of anything short. Sid fell LBW to the wily Phil Mann but that only brought Neale Whitfield to the crease and the old heads knew just how to get us over the line. A flurry of boundaries from Neale (21*) and the total was passed in the 27th over for a full 24 points to the home side.

Some promising youngsters on view from both sides and it was hard to pick a man of the match. Three wickets each for Mohammed and Archy put them in close contention but this week the award went to Sid Davies for his bowling and partnership with Paul to calm us back down and consolidate from what was a tricky position.

Scorecard

The team consolidated 2nd place in Division 9 and next up is another game at Meriden against Rugby.

Match details

Match date

Sat 11 Jun 2022

Kickoff

13:00

Competition

Division 9 South Central
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Club Sponsor - Rubix
Weekly player of the match sponsor - Anthony Collins Solicitors