Saturday 11th May 2019
AJ Fordham Surrey Championship
Worcester Park 151 all out (47.3 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 152 for 5 (36.2 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon won by 5 wickets
Stoke made a winning start to life in Division 2 with an efficient put in & chase mission at Worcester Park.
James Trower’s attack worked well as a unit. Toby Tarrant collected the first wickets of the season, both to catches at the wicket from Tom Frost, the first an excellent one low down the leg-side to account for J.Hill for 2, and then a more regulation effort to remove Waite for 19. Tarrant’s opening spell saw him concede just eleven runs from seven overs.
R.Hill was third out when he cut Will Frost to Will Gudgeon at slip, (54 for 3), and the same bowler took out Overseas Spicuglia when he pinned him leg-before for 17. Frost returned tidy figures of 10-0-23-2.
No.3 Rawlings and Bradshaw moved to total to 100, but it took the home side more than 33 overs to get there as Frost, Shawn Dyson and an excellent second spell from Robbie Blackburn after drinks locked things down.
This allowed Ian Hopton to do his thing and a bunch of wickets had the home side in big trouble at 104 for 7. Hopton castled Bradshaw for 11 as he tried to break the shackles; Rawlings’ innings of 42 was ended when he edged a delivery from Blackburn; then Hopton took a skied return catch as Sagar got a big leading edge trying to turn a ball through mid-wicket.
Arundell, (29), and Wilkinson tried to bat time but were separated when one of those ‘yes no yes no sorry’ situations resulted in Will Frost having a choice of ends to throw at. 136 for 8 in the 44th.
Minutes later Arundell holed out on the line to give Hopton his 200th Surrey Championship 1st XI wicket; and No.201 followed soon after when Bell hacked across the line and was palpably leg before. Hopton ended with the match’s best figures of 9.3-0-33-4.
Stoke’s pursuit of 152 began at a furious pace as Trower and Max Subba Row plundered 63 runs from the first seven overs of seam, Spicugila singled out for some real tap as his two overs yielded 29 runs.
Fourth bowler Bell slowed things a little when Subba Row, (31 from 29), served up a return catch then Gudgeon followed three balls later for a solitary boundary; but Trower, in partnership with and Dyson and then James Corbishley, kept Stoke on course with a patient partnerships against some more accurate bowling.
Dyson hit the match’s only six before failing to clear mid-on; Corbishley ran well before being bowled by the returning Faller-Fritsch – the first time he has been dismissed this season – and Trower’s knock of 52 ended when he skied a catch to the keeper off the same bowler. Trower faced 81 balls for his runs and found the ropes eight times.
Any hopes the home side had of a late twist with two new batsmen were quickly ended when Alastair Curran, (11 not out), and Tom Frost, (17 not out), knocked off the rest to complete the win with 13.4 overs to spare.
An excellent start to the season. Next week Stoke host Bank of England.
Scorecard : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/website/results/3753111