Surrey Championship Division 5
Cranleigh 2nd XI 205 for 9
Stoke D’Abernon 2nd XI 206 for 4
Stoke D’Abernon 2nd XI, (13 points), beat Cranleigh 2nd XI by 6 wickets
Whilst the day had started quite brightly (weather wise) it clouded over at lunchtime and as the day wore on we got slowly colder. Still, the conditions were good for swing bowling and having won the toss Matt asked Cranleigh to bat first. A great start for Stoke saw the visitors 12-2 early on. Crispy was fit to bowl again and got the ball moving early on, taking a wicket in his 3rd over. Shortly afterwards the dangerous Greaves tried to take a run off a misfield, only to see Ali Mac recover the ball and throw down the stumps from mid off.
Things got better as Keith marked his return from illness with a terrific diving catch in the covers off the bowling of Big Bird. Parrott (the batsman) may consider himself unlucky as it was the 7th ball of the over. Crispy then hit the stumps for a 2nd time to leave Cranleigh reeling at 40-4.
Marshall joined Coldman at the crease and the pair started Cranleigh’s revival which saw 112 runs put on for the next 3 wickets. Crispy found the leading edge of Coldman’s bat to give a catch to Gazelle in the gully for a patient 32. Crispy finished with 3-35 from 17 incisive overs. Marshall and Van de Merve pushed the scoring rate along until Marshall was bowled by Gazelle for 39. Gazelle, Matt and Dom persevered, but Lahiru continued to up the run rate with some aggressive hitting until he hit one straight back at Matt who took a sharp return catch. Matt also took an lbw before Gazelle dismissed Van de Merve for 36.
At 164-9 it looked like we’d have less than 170 to chase, but the final pair made the most of an early drop on the boundary to put on 41 important runs in the last 11 overs and set us 206 to win.
The run chase started badly as Ali Mac edged his 6th ball. The keeper juggled it and Marshall completed the catch at slip. Falcon gave the innings impetus with a quick 23, seeing the ball really well before mistiming a pull to square leg. The visiting bowlers kept Steve unusually quiet and gave him very little to hit. Tufty played himself in before falling leg before to Hankinson for 15.
Pagie was very patient to start with, dispatching the rare bad ball to the fence, but the run rate was better than it seemed thanks to a healthy dose of extras. When Steve’s patient innings was brought to an end (adjudged lbw to Hankinson for 23) the chase was evenly poised at 109-4.
Keith in his first league game of the season joined Pagie at the crease. The pair decided now was the time to make the push for the win. Having taken 54 balls to reach 20, Pagie took only half as many again to get to his half century – amazingly his first for the 2s in a league game. With 40 minutes left, we still required 50 to win, but this was to prove little problem as both batsmen were now striking the ball cleanly and into the gaps. The partnership included 15 boundaries including a 6 over long off for Keith and 10 of Pagie’s 14 4s. For the 2nd time this season Pagie hit the winning runs, this time with 10 minutes to spare. The partnership didn’t quite reach 100, but it didn’t matter as we now have 6 wins in a row.
We now prepare for a top of the table clash next week when we welcome 2nd place Hampton Wick to the rec for the first reverse fixture of the season.
Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10912411
Table : http://surreychampionship.play-cricket.com/leaguetables/divisionTable.asp?id=6734&seasonID=23