Hathern 2nd XI v BOTWCC 2nd XI
Saturday 7th June 2008
Well, slap me sideways! What a shocker! Not the match result, merely the fact we got a match complete. After years of trying at Hathern, finally this year the weather did not let us down and despite the occasional light drizzle in the early overs, an entire match was played. (Almost).
Having won the toss and given the slow and soggy pitch, Skipper Rob Dunn elected to field, putting the home team in to bat. A good choice, it turned out.
All bowlers bowled tight lines and nothing (ish) too short and runs were proving hard to come by. Wickets fell a regular intervals and partnerships were consequently unable to flourish. And so, after 45 fruitless overs the home team had managed a paltry 130 for 9. The star of the show being young Tom Shipman, who took a worthy 4 wickets for 13 off 6 overs. Well played that lad. Shame about his sneaky jug avoidance techniques though.
The Burton reply was sweet and professionally executed. Regular openers Mark Russell and Ali Love took to their task with seasoned aplomb and gave nothing of a sniff the the Hathern attack. Barring Adey Rush, who was as consistent as always, the Hathern bowlers delivered a plethora of short and slow balls for the Burton bats to make hay with.
And so it continued, until the 24th over, a full 11 overs from the end and still with 10 wickets still in hand, Ali Love slapped another short leg side ball through mid wicket for 4 to win the match.
That's right. 10 wickets in hand. Burton had reached the target making 132 for 0 in just 24 overs. The star bat being young Ali Love, no doubt playing his last match for the Seconds, hitting a confident 75 not out. Mark Russell supported him in fine style, with his own flourish of runs and ended the innings not out on 46. More jug avoidance, but one jug is enough for one week.
Good work the Two's. Lets have a week off. (No match next week, as Taverners cannot field a team)
Match Stats
Bowlers
L Smith 12-6-19-1
C Langham 6-1-9-0
G Penton 12-0-35-2 (bloody hell!)
S Shipman 5-0-16-1
T Shipman 6-0-13-4
A Archer
4-0-13-1
Batting
M Russell 46 not out
A Love 75 not out