Round 14 Summary

January 21, 2018

FIRST XI defeated Ashburton Willows

Wilbur finally won a coin toss and elected to bat.  It was testing conditions with top side Willows very good opening attack and was slow going.  Speedy was looking good after seeing out the new ball  and tried to accelerate the run rate.  This brought Kavan to the crease who unfortunately made his first ever “Knotty” for the club.  2 down for not many and the Willows were very excited.

Wilbur and Doolz steadied the ship before Wilbur gave away his wicket.  Bringing old man Datto to the crease and started to look good before deciding to hit a full toss straight to a fielder.  Brentons and Doolz put on a good partnership, and Doolz raised the bat for a well made 50.  Then another good partnership with Gaz and Brentons, before Gaz decided to hit the ball to their best fielder, running Brentons out by 15 paces (3 metres).  Gaz and Greeny finished off the innings with crafty and aggressive partnership taking the score over 200 and Gaz making another 50.

In overcast conditions suiting swing bowling, Stiffler and Grades (4 for 9) opened up, both bowling out and having the opposition 4/30 from 16.  On top of this, Nav (3 wickets all caught by Kavan) and Greeny followed suit off his 2 step run up with 2 wickets.

We bowled the Willows out for 72.

SECOND XI DEFEATED BURNLEY CYMS

Once again Knotty lost the coin toss, (probably won’t know what to do if he wins one) and they elected to bat.  In humid, ideal bowling conditions, we opened with Wolfy and Nav M.  Both bowled a treat, with the new Wolfy, slowing it down and getting the ball to move frustrating the batsmen – and included a slower ball that went high into the stratosphere.  After his first catch off Wolfy, Bobby spoke about how he dropped 3 in 15-minutes once upon a time; he redeemed himself catching the first 3 batsmen at second slip.  3 for 36 at the end of the Openers spell.  Change brought on the young fellas, Benny B. and Jake Kann in his return game.  Both bowled well, taking 2 wickets each and keeping a lid on their batsmen.  On an unforgiving ground, (bouncy pitch, very small sideways), the Vets were called upon to bring us home, Martie and the Ferret.  Craig had taken 7 wickets against Burnley in this season and bowled well at the death, but wasn’t his day.  Martie persisted, but lost his radar a bit.  He did stick to the plan though, not to take a wicket in the last over.  Reason being, it would have brought their retired batsmen in – a big hitter.  We held all of our catches and were superb in the field.

Chasing 170 for the win, we opened with the left hand – right hand combination of Bobby and Knotty.  Bobby was really enjoying himself, making a quick fire 52*, an opening stand of around 85, half way there.  Sai came in at Number 3 and he too enjoyed it out there, making 35, unfortunately being run out (their only wicket).  In the meantime, Knotty had retired on 53*.  Boothy and Govey saw us through to the end and ensuring we won by a healthy 9 wickets.

We still push for that top 4 position, but all we can do is keep winning.

REMINDER:

As we get closer and closer to finals, more and more we need to consider selections.  We understand if you can’t make training for work or other reasons, just let us know.  We also will look at the commitment of players to the club (regular availability or just hanging around Saturday nights) and in particular subs (click here) being paid.  We could have two sides in the finals, 22 positions (24 with twelfth men) up for grabs.

GO PANTHERS!

Comments 2

  1. LOCKIE CAPS

    THAT BLUE FONT HURTS MY EYES

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