Back to winning ways
The sunny weather returned this week, albeit only from Friday, but it was enough to have a fair go at drying out our pitch and outfield. It was still a little bit dewy overnight, so there was a slight amount of moisture in the shadier parts of the outfield, but not too bad overall.
I won the toss and chose to bat in a 40 over game. With a lack of normal opening partners for Fossie, I resumed a partnership of a couple of years back and opened with him. We put on 51 for the first wicket, which was sadly mine, as I toe end edge to the wicket keeper to a ball I could probably have left for a wide. Not a great innings either, only score 12 with two 4's. Still not really getting forward and trying to blast every ball to the boundary. Need to get back to playing better shots etc. Still, a good start to the innings.
Nick Ross was in next and shared a 21 run partnership before he too fell to a catch for 6. Asif was next in but sadly was out LBW first ball. Shankar was next in, looking to continue his good form from previous games. Sadly, Fossie was soon out for 30, caught at Extra Cover, to a ball that was also pretty wide!
Shanks and Ray were now in and Shanks was finding his form, getting off the mark with a straight six (good lad!) on his way to getting 64 in a partnership of 77, which included seven 4's and five 6's! Ray playing a good steady role at the other end.
Debutant Mark Grievson was in next but was too out for a duck via an LBW and soon ray followed and we were looking unsteady at 161-7 but with 14 overs to go. Mark Cross and Jay Mahadevan were in now and they started well, combining well run singles with boundaries. Jay even scored a 5 courtesy of a quick single and 4 overthrows. 80 runs later and with Mark on 30 (courtesy or Rob Tate's tree-trunk bat), he was bowled by one that didn't get up that much. A fine partnership though.
Jay couldn't quite get to his 50 though, as he was stumped on 45 as he looked to chase the runs in the last few overs. Second debutant Dilan and Mohan were now at the crease and both managed to get ff the mark, before Dilan was bowled for 1 at the end of the 39th over.
Final score was 249 all out, which I was pretty pleased with given we were 78-4 ad 161-7 at various points in the innings. We were aided by some a half century from extras, who reached the 2nd highest scorer in the innings at 52! However, Bedhampton are always a strong team so the game was certainly not over.
Shanks and Mark G opened the bowling and their opener (Greg Hoolihan) took a liking to Mark's bowling and was soon in the 20s. In the 8th over, Jay replaced Mark G and soon the pressure he brought was taking effect as chaos reigned in the running and one of the openers was Run Out (sadly not Mr Hoolihan) and they were 46-1.
Another 39 run partnership followed and their opener past his 50 but was then out LBW to Dilan, taking his first wicket for the club. 85-2 from 14.3 overs so they were still up with the rate required.
2 runs later and they were 3 down, as I took a catch at Silly Mid Off for award Jay his first wicket on the day. After 4 overs, Dilan (playing his first game in 2 years) was shot and Mohan came on to replace him. He and Jay, bowled in tamden very well, keeping the pressure on and this finally told in Jay's last over as he at Chris Hovey caught behind for 10, putting them on 104-4 after 21.2 overs and therefore behind the rate.
Their number 3 was still in though so there was always a danger that they could accelerate again, but a returning Mark G got that wicket, courtesy of a loopy catch to Mark Cross at point, leaving them on 127-5.
The Fenn (brothers?!) were now in and putting together a good partnership (as they had done opening the bowling) mixing some lusty blows with some good running on there way to a partnership of 53, before the younger Fenn was bowled for 29 by Nick Ross, who found that pitching the ball was more effective that bowling full toss drivel ;)
Their skipper was now out in the middle and it looked like another good partnership was developing before Nick trapped the other Fenn for 24, via a back leg LBW decision and they were now on 184-7 with 8.2 overs to go.
Their skipper and Quade jnr were running the singles well and a partnership of 23 was made before another run out saw the end of the skip and they were 207-8 with 5 overs to go. So, it was still do-able. I was on to bowl by this point and was keeping things relatively tight and Shanks was back on at the other end. 3 balls into his returning spell and he had Quade jnr LBW for 9 and they were all out for 212 (they only had 10 players) and we were back to winning ways :D
We hadn't recorded a victory against Bedhampton since 2006, so I was delighted to have skippered IBMSHCC to a win and to get us back on track after the previous weeks defeat.
I coulda done with more runs personally, but there ya go, can't have everything! Nice to get a few more decent overs under my belt and a catch, so not a bad day in all.