Beddington – Drawn

Flying bats and a draw!

Match report away versus Beddington 2nd August 2015 – drawn

With players away and injured Grace’s had to work hard to get 11 for this regular fixture in south London. Newbie Stu made his debut and Anosh kindly made the trek from the east – Beddington generously lent us a player too. The weather was the complete opposite to last weekend’s washout with glorious sunshine greeting us.

Dom lost the toss and unsurprisingly we were fielding in our only time game of the season. Newton soon got the opener to play on without a run scored and when Mamun caught the number 3,again off Newton, the hosts were in trouble at 4 for 2. Floyd the number 4 then dug in with Sturt the number 2 to compile a useful partnership of 46 until the latter was caught off Anosh for 11 in the 11th over.

Some positive batting and a very fast outfield saw the score accumulating despite regular wickets falling (number 4 Floyd making a nice 43) and with the score at 112 for 8 in the 32nd over ,Grace’s were expecting the innings to be wrapped up. However Beddington’s number 10,Horkon, had other ideas signaling his intent by swatting his first ball for a boundary. With good support from the tail he then proceeded to hit out at anything not on target and the game was starting to get away from us. A highlight of his innings was Newton appealing for a caught behind and when the finger was not raised then appealing to the square leg umpire – doubly disappointed!

Our catching was patchy allowing the stocky number 10 a couple of lives and when he was finally bowled by Mendis for an entertaining 38 in the 42nd over the total had reached 167. The wickets were shared around – With bowlers unrestricted Mendis had 13 overs with 2 for 39 , Anosh picking up 3 and Newton and Mamun 2 each.

After a welcome tea Dom opened with Leo – in the 4th over Leo was bowled for 2 by one that kept low. Mendis in at 3 made the cardinal error of running out the skipper for 7 – the normally stoical Dom did not take kindly to this and after a flying bat incident went on a solo navigation of the boundary! Meanwhile Newton in at 4 played his usual attacking game until getting bowled for 16 bringing in Stu who looked settled until mistiming to be caught and bowled. When Mendis was bowled soon after this we were in trouble at 48 for 5 in the 15th over.

This brought our guest player Rick and Naroshan to the wicket and they proceeded to thwart the host’s bowling attack, keeping everything out for the next 19 overs taking advantage of the time format.

Rick in particular enjoyed playing against his team even refusing to be tempted by their skipper’s loopy deliveries. The partnership was enjoyed by the watching players and supporters – Rick was eventually caught off the penultimate ball leaving the score at 85 for 5 – Naroshan finished on 19 not out to complete a good game (he had a great stumping earlier)

After the game both teams took advantage of the nice bar facilities to talk over the afternoon.