Sunday 5th May 2019
Friendly
Stoke D’Abernon 225 for 3 (40 overs)
Petersfield 159 for 8 (40 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon won by 66 runs
After the Saturday 2nd XI match was lost due to the opposition ground not being fit; a few of the affected players made themselves available for Sunday to allow an advert to be placed late in the week that generated an offer from an unknown quantity in Petersfield.
We struck gold; getting an invite to a great ground and an opposition that couldn’t be more welcoming…and they even sourced us an eleventh man as we were only able to replace four of the five players that had originally made themselves available but then couldn’t report for a variety of reasons.
The hosts earned more points when they invited us to bat first on winning the toss. First XI all-rounder Straw bowled a heavy ball from one end; at the other a highly promising Hampshire U15 girl Clarke bowled accurately and moved the ball enough to force openers Peter Phipps and Andy Berry to hit out.
The partnership gathered momentum as Berry tucked into some tidy but generally unthreatening change bowling; Berry survived a difficult chance at cow, but otherwise the Club’s first century partnership of the season was brought up in the 20th over. Berry moved to 53 in said over, but having greeted sixth bowler Sashidharan with a towering six into the trees first ball, he was bowled off the next aiming for a repeat. 110 for 1.
Phipps constructed a nice innings of 38 from 71 to complete his preparation for next week’s first round of league matches before being stumped, leaving two new batsmen, Steve Wade and Roddy Kelso, to build on the good foundation laid.
This they did; Wade Snr was scratchy at first but eventually got into a groove. Kelso was in good touch from the start and a stand of 64 in eleven overs was only broken when Clarke returned for her second spell and bowled Wade Snr for 30.
Wade Snr was replaced by Wade Jnr, Rory W created a good impression on debut; running hard and collecting an unbeaten 21 from 16 balls faced. Kelso moved to his half-century courtesy of a dropped catch on the line that trickled over the rope for four. Soon after he was one of fifteen people to leave the field after 40 overs with 225 for 3 racked up on the scoreboard.
After a nice tea with lots of variety; Adrian Mills and Geoff Vinall carried on from where they left off in Suffolk last weekend, sharing twelve overs and limiting the batsmen to just 39 runs for one; opener James Stratford-Tuke hitting Mills to mid-off where Carel Ferreira did well to get both hands under the ball.
A double-change by Phipps saw Kelso and loanee Rob Allerston share the remaining overs to drinks. Each took a wicket. Kelso found his range and the base of Windebank’s middle stump with an inducker; Allerston bowled tidily yet picked up a wicket with an out of character full toss that keeper opening bat Squires simply missed. Squires had made 38 useful runs, mostly through point.
The game was still nicely poised though as Cropley and Straw took the total past the 100-mark.
Ferreira and Ralph Coleman were the next two to have their turn with the ball. The former did well, but it was the latter who reversed one through Cropley’s gate, then Gibson could do little with one that kept low and ended up hitting the stumps via the toe of the bat.
Straw continued to take the attack to the bowlers, but his over-keenness to farm the strike saw him call the younger Stratford-Tuke through for a single that would have been a coin flip for a traditional Sunday fielder; but was officially rated suicidal given that the ball was hit straight to Kelso.
Did the right man walk off? One to discuss later, but Straw’s continued presence kept the game alive. Having taken a liking to a hitherto seam attack, Alistair McMillan came on and teased him to the point of utter frustration, and he was seventh out for the highest score of the mat, (62), when he was bowled giving it the charge.
There was time for Coleman to collect his third when Russell gave the umpire the easiest of leg before decisions; then Wade Snr and Berry shared the final two overs; Clarke completing her good day by nursing the final total up to 159 for 8; a total that contained just two extras, and no byes from Wade Jnr who did a great job. We’d like to see more of you please Rory – over to you to arrange, Dad!
Given where we were with fixtures and availability on Thursday, today was an utter triumph; made possible by the players supporting this fixture by making what was a lengthy away trip on a Bank Holiday weekend. Those available from today for next Sunday will automatically keep their places.
Scorecard : https://sdacc.play-cricket.com/website/results/4044352