Newton's game!
Match report – away v South Loughton CC 26th April 2015
Grace’s 164 all out – 40 overs exactly – South Loughton 99 all out 33 overs – a win by 65 runs.
As is customary with our season opening visits to South Loughton it was a pretty cool and cloudy afternoon – definitely a 2 jumper day! Dom lost the toss and Grace’s were invited to bat on a damp looking strip. Accurate bowling from the host’s openers restricted Dom and Leo to careful accumulation before Leo was bowled for a patient 7; 22 for 1 in the 11th over.
Mahender came in at 3 and played his normal attacking game hitting anything loose. The Loughton 3rdbowler (Battle) tossed the ball up invitingly and Mahender took up the challenge taking the total to 42 in the 16th over before Dom was LBW to the spinner for 13. Newton was in at 4 and he and Mahender then launched an attack on the bowling adding 50 in only 7 overs before Mahender was stumped for 35 off only 34 deliveries; 92 for 3. This was the key partnership in our total.
Mendis added a quick 11 before misjudging and being bowled for a stylish 11 – Sam quickly followed for a single; 110 for 5 in the 29th over. Scott came in at 7 and supported Newton who was eventually bowled for an entertaining 41. Last season the game was tied on 176 so Grace’s needed something close to this to be defendable.
The cold weather had certainly helped us as the hosts dropped at least 8 catches of varying degrees of difficulty – Newton at least 4 times! These were to prove costly for the hosts.
Stuart (23) and Scott (16) added a quick 28 with some cheeky running taking the total to 160 for 7 with 2 overs left. The outfield was about as slow as it could be as only 6 boundaries and one 6 featured in our total – one 4 was all run by Scott and Stuart!
A bizarre 39th over featured a hat-trick by the 6th Loughton bowler, Raju, and we ended up with 164 all out at the end of the 40th over.
A sumptuous tea was taken before Newton and new addition Rob opened the attack. Rob’s second delivery was an inviting full toss which was hit to deep mid wicket where Newton took a comfortable catch – so Rob opened his account in his first over much to his joy! The second wicket fell at 14 when a hesitation for a second run saw an accurate throw by Stuart result in R. Hossain being run out for 6. 14 for 2 became 15 for 3 as Rob trapped Ayub the other opener LBW for 6. Loughton were well and truly on the ropes when keeper Scotty caught the number 5 bat off Mamun; 20 for 4 wickets!
Sensible batting by the number 4 & 6 batsmen took the host’s score to 61 in the 22nd over before Newton produced an unbelievable direct hit throw from deep mid wicket running out the number 4 , Scherer, for a crafted 25 going for a second run. This knocked the stuffing out of Loughton as they collapsed from 61 for 5 to 99 all out in the 33rd over with Newton claiming a total of 4 catches the highlight being one right on the boundary. It was definitely his day as he caught and bowled the last batsman as well as top scoring. Another notable event was Mahender’s dance when he took his third wicket!
6 catches were taken by Grace’s in total – with not one dropped in a very enjoyable game. If Loughton had hung onto theirs it may have been a different result – as ever Loughton were very generous hosts and we showed some great determination in our batting that hopefully we can carry over to future games.