Surrey Championship Division 5
Maori Oxshott 198 all out (49.4 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 202 for 4 (30.4 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon, (10 points), beat Maori Oxshott, (0 points), by 6 wickets
Personal bests in Stoke colours for Toby Tarrant with the ball, then Anthony Alleyne with the bat saw Stoke complete a six wicket win over neighbours Maori Oxshott.
Home skipper Saker chose to make first use of the strip and with partner Knight he made slow but steady progress, initially against Tarrant and the recalled Ralph Coleman, then change bowlers Hiken Shah and Ian Hopton. Shah bowled his ten over allocation in one spell, conceding just 26 runs.
On a benign pitch that had little bounce or seam movement, but offered some turn, Josh Howe made the breakthrough in the 31st over when he bowled Saker who charged down the wicket trying to break the shackles. By this time only 96 runs had been scored, despite the short boundaries which were well protected with good field placements set by acting Stoke captain Jack Raimondo.
Knight compiled 39 but put pressure on the middle and lower order by the number of deliveries he used to get there, and rather than batting through, he surrendered his wicket with a wild swing that led to him being bowled Jake Lavender. Lavender, (2-26), followed this with the wicket of Gill who was also bowled.
Despite Benzies, (25), and Driscoll, (17), moving the total to 161 for 3 by the 43rd over; their dismissals to the returning Tarrant in successive overs sparked a collapse which saw the last seven wickets fall for 37 runs.
Ian Hopton added two more wickets to his impressive season’s tally when Khokhor was bowled, then Jarrett was easily stumped by Anthony Alleyne who was an able deputy for the absent Tom Frost.
Tarrant ran through the tail, castling Mushtaq and Finch, then No.11 Murphy picked out Howe in the deep to close the innings on 198.
Tarrant returned his best ever Stoke figures of 8.4-1-28-5.
After tea, Shah and Jay Stevenson each hit two fours but were both back in the pavilion by the end of the seventh over when they fell to Murphy. Shah was clearly hampered by a foot injury sustained on the morning of the match, and chose to deal in boundaries. He mis-timed an on drive where Saker took a casual one handed catch, then Stevenson played back to a short ball that kept low and was leg before.
These dismissals lifted the home side, but hopes of further inroads were emphatically removed by Alleyne and Raimondo who added 81 runs in just 12.3 overs. The pair ran well and cashed in on the all too frequent bad ball. Alleyne took charge by hitting all of the bowlers out of the attack, and had scored 72 of the 109 runs scored at the point of Raimondo’s dismissal when a lone appeal for leg before from Wheeler was answered in the affirmative, despite the keeper diving full length down the leg-side to save what would have been a certain four leg-byes.
Will Gudgeon hit two boundaries in a brief innings of 11, but perished when he clubbed a long hop from Driscoll to Saker at mid-wicket who somehow held on. This ended a 44 run partnership, and new batsman James Lander gave Alleyne the strike to push a single to complete his hundred.
With his place on the honours board secure, Alleyne continued to smash the ball to all parts of the ground, making full use of the short boundaries and hitting 20 fours and three sixes, the second and third of these taking Stoke over the finishing line with 19.2 overs to spare.
Alleyne’s final score was 138 not out and he faced just 80 balls for his runs. His effort was the third highest score by a Stoke 1st XI player in League cricket.
In his brief stay at the crease Lander showed glimpses of his immense promise with a cleanly hit straight drive for four during the winning unbroken partnership of 49.
Next week, Stoke host Godalming with a top three finish in their sights.
Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10911088