2nd XI win Promotion with win over Maori Oxshott

Surrey Championship Division 5

Stoke D’Abernon 2nd XI 163 all out (49 overs)

Maori Oxshott 2nd XI 90 all out (34.5 overs)

Stoke D’Abernon 2nd XI, (10 points), beat Maori Oxshott 2nd XI, (0 points), by 73 runs

Stoke’s 2nd XI secured a second promotion in three seasons and will participate in Division 4 of the Surrey Championship for the first time in 2011.

Losing the toss again meant we were asked to bat first on a green strip, which would clearly require a lot of patience. We got off to a good start though, Steve and Falcon pushing 4 an over. Falcon hit 2 boundaries before he was yorked by Tahir and Gav kept up the attack while Steve decided it would be his job to anchor the innings. This proved to be the highest partnership of the match at 33.

Gav hit 4 4s and looked comfortable before driving the ball straight to cover for 22 before Steve was bowled 2 overs later for 23. Bobby and a very steady Tufty took us past drinks before Bobby was caught in 2 minds trying to pull a short ball from Butt. Parera juggled the catch at gully but managed to hold it to give Butt his 3rd wicket.

4 byes took us past the 100 mark, but when Pagie was bowled by Nasir we were 103-5 and in need of a patnership or 2. Tufty and Peter put on 26 for the 6th wicket before Mollan struck 3 times in quick succession sandwiching Butt’s 4th wicket (that of Tufty). Butt was the pick of the visiting bowlers finishing with 4-27 from his 10 overs.

Po managed to stick around long enough for Matt to top score with 30, hauling us over 160, but was run out by Tahir’s direct hit, trying to give Matt the strike for the last over. Matt scored 30 of the 34 runs scored while he was at the crease and whilst we suspected we could have done better than 163, we knew it would be a defendable total if we bowled and fielded well.

After tea Po and Bondi took the new ball. Po’s first 2 overs each went for a boundary before he settled into a rhythm and found the edge of Butt’s bat, Falcon taking the catch in front of slip. Sayed will consider himself fortunate to have survived his first ball from Bondi, but with Po’s comparative lack of pace meant it was only a matter of time before he skied a catch. The spiralling catch was very well taken by Peter at mid off after seemingly puncturing a hole in the cloud.

When we played Oxshott earlier in the season, Mollan was the only Oxshott batter who applied himself but he was very well caught this time by Matt who held his “statue of liberty” pose at short cover.

Bobby was introduced into the attack and yorked Meesome with the last ball of his 3rd over. In the next over Po found the edge of Raja’s bat. the ball was half stopped by Bobby, but amazingly the non-striker called him through for a single. Pagie threw the ball in and Falcon whipped off the bails to run Parera out without him having to face a ball. 31-5. Po’s last 5 overs were all maidens as he finished with stingy figures of 10-6-10-3.

Matt replaced Bobby at the Blundell Lane end and tempted his opposing skipper to edge to Gav at slip. Raja was the last hope for the visitors and by now was the only player still looking to score runs. His 40 was the highest score in the match, but when he was bowled by Willo, we sniffed victory just around the corner. Willo took a wicket in each of his last 4 overs including 2 more catches for Matt and another well judged skier by Peter on the long off boundary to win the match. Willo finished with 4-19 from just shy of 8 overs.

A bonus point win meant that we would be promoted unless Hampton Wick had also managed a bonus point win against Godalming. Having left an answerphone message with Godalming, I phoned Hampton Wick to be told happily that they had won and got a bonus point, so we would have to wait until next week. Within minutes though, our slight disappointment turned to confusion as Matt received a message from Oxted & Limpsfield congratulating us on our promotion and saying they’d see us in division 4 next year. Of course we all had a chuckle upon our discovery that the chaps at Bushey Park had been comprehensively thumped by Godalming thus confirming our promotion.

We still need to win our last 2 games to claim the division 5 title though, and our next game is next Saturday at Godalming.

Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10912415