Opposition scrape home as our tails fails to wag!
Our first trip to Boston Manor this season saw the visit of Southlands CC – thankfully the threatening weather held off and the sun was spotted in the afternoon!
Dom won the toss and chose to bat on a flat looking strip. Grace’s were soon having second thoughts as 4 batsman were soon back in the pavilion for only 18 runs. This was the result of some wily bowling and injudicious shots. This brought Mendis and Stuart to the crease. Mendis simply carried on from his previous innings looking serene as he showed his class with a range of drives and pulls. Stuart also looked comfortable with the bowling as anything loose was punished. This pair got our innings back on track adding 80 before Stuart was out in an unusual manner. The young bowler Luder (junior) was having problems with control and had given away lots of extras (there were a total of 29 in the innings) before Stuart stepped back to a wide delivery, thought about where it was going to be dispatched to and only succeeded in flattening his own stumps! He’d scored a rapid 39 and looked set for a 50.
Niroshan came in at 7 and played a very responsible innings supporting Mendis for 7 overs before he was bowled for 11. He’d added 40 with Mendis for the 6th wicket. Manish then entered the fray scoring an entertaining 23 in a 52 run partnership. Mendis in the meantime had passed his 50 and looked in no danger. He was next out however LBW for a classy 70. 190 for 7 became 191 all out in the 36th over as the Grace’s tail failed to wag and crucially failed to see out the 40 overs. 6th bowler Durban picked up 3 wickets for no runs! Grace’s were happy to reach a defendable 190 after such a poor start to the innings.
The teams then retired to the shabby pavilion where Dom and Paul provided a great tea featuring sandwiches, quiche, fruit and included in the fine range of desserts an outstanding lemon meringue pie!
After stuffing ourselves battle recommenced with Newton and Mamun opening the attack against Weinbaum and Baron who shared a quickfire 31 before Naroshan caught the number 1 off Manish for 18. Luder (senior) in at 3 took up the attack with an effective approach of hitting everything to the leg side. Baron in the meantime was using a runner due to a hamstring injury before Jonners stumped him off the excellent Manish for 21 – 2 for 58 in the 17th over.
This brought in Durban who shortly hit Mahender to long on where Stuart took a well judged catch – 3 for 73. Reynolds in at 5 after a shaky start started to find his timing and took the attack to Grace’s with anything loose punished. He was the danger man and kept up the scoring rate bringing up the visitor’s 100 in the 25th over. Dom mixed up the bowling but our lack of a 5th regular bowler showed. Some good middle support for Reynolds kept the scoreboard ticking over but Grace’s were still in the game. However some expensive overs took the pressure off Southlands and despite some late wickets (including Stuart picking up another sharp catch off Dom) including Reynolds for 61 the visitors got home with an over to spare with 8 wickets down. An enjoyable game against friendly opposition that highlighted the importance of seeing out the full 40 overs – but credit to Southlands for some attacking batting.