Surrey Championship Division 4 – 2nd XI competition
Metropolitan Police 2nd XI 123 all out (42.4 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 2nd XI 124 for 2 (29.4 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 2nd XI won by 8 wickets
A fine all-round bowling and fielding performance set up a Stoke victory that was emphatically completed by a Jonny Lawes assault on the Met Police bowling.
The game had to be played at Old Walcountians CC due to Met Police’s home ground being used for a music festival and we got there to find a very green wicket, which persuaded Pagie to field first on winning the toss.
Jake and Big Bird opened up and found good line and length straight away. Jake got the 1st breakthrough in his 2nd over when Haykin tried to cut a ball that was too close and only edged it to Malcolm behind the stumps. Jake then got a ball to rear up at Carmier striking him on the helmet. At the other end Big Bird was giving nothing away and sneaked one through Carmier’s defences via bat and pad.
Once Jake finished his first spell, Mike came on at the far end and found a bit of pace and good line after a couple of looseners. Mike was unlucky not to get a wicket or 2 thanks to an edge in the gap between slip and gully and an aerial bullet from Jones’ bat which in fairness Jake did well to stop. Big Bird finished his spell successfully with wickets of Mehdi and Jones (who top scored with 25) in his last 3 overs recording figures of 3-27.
Po replaced Big Bird at the pavilion end and got a wicket in his first over caught by Ali Mac in the gully. Po’s 1st 2 overs were maidens and his 2nd wicket (in his 3rd over) was a near replica of the 1st, also caught by Ali in the gully. Nasir and Ashan tried to build a partnership, but when Jonny replaced Mike he bowled Nasir. Po struck again thanks to a neat catch behind the stumps by Malcolm and Jonny cleaned up the tail with wickets in consecutive balls. Both Po and Jonny finished with 3 wickets each recording 3-21 and 3-15 respectively. It had been a fantastic effort in the field by everyone and despite the bowler friendly conditions, 123 all out was better than we had hoped for.
Chasing 124 to win after tea, Peter and Ali opened up. We needed to get off to a solid start and not lose early wickets and these are the perfect 2 batsmen to do this. Khan bowled well, but was unable to find a breakthrough as both batsmen knew they just had to wait for the bad balls with a small target to chase. Despite the steady scoring, Peter and Ali eased any nerves that may have been in the Stoke dressing room.
Peter fell to Ebrahim in the 17th over for 17, before Malcolm and Ali continued the progress. In the 24th over Malcolm hit the ball back at Patel, who dived forward and appealed for a low catch which was given. Any thoughts Met Police had that they might be making progress with us 58-2 were quickly put to an end by Jonny.
It took 5.4 overs for Jonny to finish the game with some devastating hitting. We needed 66 to win when he came in and Jonny proceded to score 65 of them, going aerial when he had to and seemingly putting the ball where he wanted on the field. Nasir was tried and his over went for 21 before Jonny hit the winning runs off the 4 balls bowled by Ashan. Jonny’s 65 came from just 33 balls with 8 4s and 4 6s. Ali Mac finished not out 29 at the other end, with the 2 Jameses – Trower and Corbishley – not needed to bat.
Stoke 2s now have 2 wins and 2 losses from the opening games, which we can be quite pleased with as our start in a new division. Next week we travel to Sinjungrammarians for the first time and go back to time format.
Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11138682