Grace's scrape home!
A warm afternoon at Greenford saw the visit of new opposition. After a call to Dom in the morning from Woking about only having 8 players Jonners agreed to fill in for them – so 9 against 10. The visitors won the toss and chose to bat on a green looking strip. Newton and Sid opening the bowling attack against the Woking openers – their accuracy saw the score accumulate rather than race to 37 after 14 overs before the first wicket fell – Newton catching Khayam off Mamun for 26. Scott then took one of his two catches behind while keeping to remove the number 3 for a duck. Mamun then bowled the other opener leaving the score at 49 for 3.
More accurate bowling saw wickets fall regularly until Jonners anchored the innings with the number 8 Wicks and finally their skipper taking the score to a final total of 116 off 38 overs – Newton running out their captain with a direct hit from distance. It was an innings dominated by the bowlers on a slow strip – Sid again being unlucky to pick up any wickets – Mamun emerging with 4 for 31 off his 8 overs being the pick. The score looked below par but Grace’s had yet to bat.
Sam had come along to watch and was pleasantly surprised to get a game. After tea Grace’s had the worst start possible – A mix up with Sam leading to Dom being run out off the very first ball without facing! The bowling domination from the first innings then continued with some straight bowling from Woking – unlike last week’s opposition all the bowlers were strong. 2 more quick wickets took the score to 25 for 3 bringing Naroshan and Stuart together. This pair added a crucial 49 runs before Mamun, on as a sub fielder, caught Naroshan for 24. Stuart soon followed for a well crafted 30. The score was now 79 for 5 and Grace’s were still in the driving seat. However the Woking bowlers continued to apply pressure leading to some risky shots resulting in wickets falling regularly. 116 looked like a good score – The tension mounted with the last wicket pair, Scott and Sid, needing 10 to win the game. 4 byes helped to relieve the situation and when they had seen off the accurate Ve, Grace’s scraped home in a very exciting finale!
Woking & Horsall were very friendly opposition and would like to host us next season.