Surrey Championship Division 5
Stoke D’Abernon 197 all out (47 overs)
Chertsey 200 for 8 (49.3 overs)
Chertsey , (9 points), beat Stoke D’Abernon, (0 points), by 2 wickets
Rocked by the loss of their captain to illness on the morning of the match Stoke D’Abernon’s 1st XI suffered a last over defeat against Chertsey.
Siddhartha Lahiri’s illness meant Tim Handel took charge for the first time, and having lost the toss, Ian Hopton and Gavin Gresse were sent in to take strike; the former moved up the order after the decision was taken not to scramble an opening batsman from the 2nd XI. Both were back in the pavilion inside the first eight overs when Gresse played around a straight ball from Ogle, and Hopton, starved of the strike, hit a return catch to first change Shepherd.
Shepherd and fellow spinner Cooper were in the attack as early as the sixth over after Handel hit the opening seam bowlers to all parts of the ground; however his progress was cut short on 32 when he played Russian roulette with the mid-off fielder and was beaten by the direct hit short of his ground. 47-3.
Hiken Shah and Jack Raimondo dug in but found runs hard to come by against the accurate bowling and intelligent field placements. The slow nature of the pitch was hindering stroke play, and both fell trying to force the pace; Shah, (18), driving to extra cover where Pulling took a great diving cat, then Raimondo clipped a length ball to Menon at mid-wicket. 77-5.
Another repair job needed, and once again Tom Frost and Will Gudgeon answered the call, adding 93 for the sixth wicket. Both played on merit and cashed in on the bad ball; and with spinners Shepherd, (10-3-22-3), and Cooper, (10-1-25-0), having finished their allocations, the pair began to enjoy the pace on the ball from the seam bowlers.
Sixth bowler Byrne made the breakthrough when Gudgeon, (32), was beaten by a ball that kept low and was leg before; and without Hopton’s lower order runs the tail crumbled in the space of 31 balls, leaving Frost stranded on 78 not out from 83 balls faced. Frost found the fence 14 times in his stay at the crease.
Byrne collected two of the last three wickets to fall to finish with figures of 3 for 45, and he also effected a run out to close the innings. Yet again Stoke were hoping that they would not rue failing to bat their overs.
After tea Bussey started with three boundaries in the first over but was soon back in the pavilion when he flashed hard at a ball from Handel and Shah held on at the second attempt at slip. Handel was in the action moments later when he dived to stop a drive from Pulling off his own bowling and deflected the ball on the stumps at the non-striker’s end to effect the run out of Houghton. A brave and correct decision from the home umpire despite the disappointed batsman’s dissent.
Pulling and Byrne made steady progress against accurate change bowling, and moved the score to 87 before Hopton collected the wicket of Pulling at short leg, a brave field placement by Handel who was warming to the task as captain.
With runs still hard to come by, another breakthrough could have put Stoke in the driving seat, but Byrne and Menon emulated Frost and Gudgeon to move the score to 161 at the required rate with little alarm other than a vociferous appeal for a catch at the wicket.
With the pitch taking spin and in need of wickets Handel rotated his spinners and Will Frost made the breakthrough when he turned one past Byrne’s bat to give brother Tom a regulation stumping.
With the score on 177 Tom Frost held on to a ball from Hopton that spooned up off the glove, and two balls later Grant edged the same bowler to Shah at slip. 177-6. Game on.
Running out of partners, Menon, began to play with more freedom and his adventure paid off as difficult chances didn’t go to hand. However Stoke’s bowlers continued to chip away; Hopton collecting his fourth and fifth wickets when Cooper skied a catch to Gudgeon in the deep, then Loveridge was bowled off the final ball of the penultimate over. Hopton finished with the match’s best figures of 10-1-41-5.
Handel bravely took on the responsibility of the final over. Crucially Menon was on strike and having survived a difficult skied chance to get back on strike; he launched the third ball of the over into the gardens to complete the win, and his own even half-century from 73 balls faced.
Disappointment for Stoke who can take pride in the way they fought back after another off-colour batting display. Spirit remains high ahead of the visit of Farncombe to the Rec next week.
Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10911025