cricket 16 Jul 2006 11:49 pm
Solid start to the second half
17 points from a winning draw over Southam was a decent result to start the second half of the season. Given that we were 35-3 after choosing to bat on a hot day, it was a great fightback. Two great partnerships put us on top. Ronnie (30) and Jack (45) added 66 in 11 overs to take us past 100 and take the initiative away from the visitors. Jack was moving into top gear when he got an atrocious umpiring decision - clearly the men in white coats are not our friends! When Ronnie followed almost immediately after we were struggling again at 103-5 with two new batsmen. The stand that followed was probably our best batting of the season. Neal Rughani (85*) and Tom Hemming (66) pushed the ball around and ran brilliantly, combining this with some lusty blows. The stand was worth well over 100 and only ended after a run-out going for an all run four. Tom’s maiden Saturday 1st XI 50 came at a crucial time. Rick and Neal combined well to push us up to 294-7 from our 50.
We put ourselves under pressure by bowling too many extras early-on. Tim Westwood took our first two wickets but bowled many more than 36 balls in his 6 over spell. From then on we were always behind the clock which influenced bowling changes more than the game situation. Viz Parmar picked up three wickets and it was clear by the 30th over that Southam weren’t really interested in chasing the target as they batted out the overs picking up full batting points.
Next week we have a tough fixture away at Walsall YMF (at Bentley Leisure Centre!) as we play the top five teams in the division in the next 6 weeks. This will be a crucial spell in determining whether we can push for the top places. All of the division results went according to league position, so we need to start upsetting this trend in order to move upwards!
In other news, congratulations to Kamil Munir for another Saturday 2nd XI 100, whilst Jim Rasin chalked up another ton as well. Today (Sunday), Rob Jordan hit 97 not out as the 1st XI missed out by 10 runs against Birmingham Civil Service, another Sunday side with an interesting attitude to umpiring.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.