Batting lets us down again
Another Sunday. Another day of mixed weather and another defeat for Graces.
Gordon lost the toss and elected to field in the rain! Dark clouds moved slowly during Belmonts innings and there were several heavy drizzles too. The One O’clock start on a June Sunday caught a couple of players by surprise who joined the others in the field as the openers dug in to build a solid partnership and take advantage of a shorter boundary. Hemang and Abhi opened the bowling for Graces without success but kept the score down. With showers forecast for the afternoon, Gordon turned to spin and this immediately brought about a change of luck as both Anosh and Mamoon picked up 2 wickets apiece during their spell. Whilst the fielding was an improvement from previous weeks, Graces yet again fumbled 4 catches during Belmont’s innings. Although Shofiq and Mendis both bowled tight spells to minimise the damage, Belmont and Edgeware completed their 35 overs innings for a total of 135 for 7 losing wickets at crucial points.
Graces in reply got off to a good start with new opening partnership of Anthony and Meadowcroft putting on 37 runs under blue skies and sunshine! However the change in the weather didn’t bring about a change of fortune for Graces who were continuously pegged back in their pursuit of victory by excellent spells from Mr Kaplan and young Greg Mayer each picking up 3 wickets. A mixture of rash shot selection, superb catching and fielding by the visitors resulted in another defeat for Graces.
Strange event of the day: We lost the match ball after it was hit for a 6 into the long grass/nettles on the boundary. Three bats and at least 9 set of legs were used to trample the vegetation to seek out the ball. But we all failed.