2nd XI
Hosting Risinghurst, it was probably just as well Babbs lost the toss as at the away fixture, Risinghurst took advantage of being inserted to rack up a vertiginous 308. This time it was a different story as Captain Kalyan won the toss and asked the Wolves to bat on a sultry late-summer afternoon. After a couple of early wickets, Darren (32) and Usman (62) batted with controlled aggression to build a partnership of 84 and take the 2’s well over 100 for the 4th wicket. Uzzie then combined with Akerman to add 24 before some lusty hitting from debutant Callum, including an enormous six over the sightscreen, and Kunal got us up to 183 in our 47 overs. The 2’s put in a typically adroit fielding session with a regulation catch for Babbs off Kunal’s bowling at mid-on and a leg-side screamer for Darren behind the sticks to give Kunal a well-deserved 3rd wicket. All the bowling changes worked like clockwork as Callum took a wicket with his first ever ball in league cricket for the club, the force is strong with this one, Samir took over from Kunal to bowl with venom from the North end and took 3 wickets, before Jeejo cleaned up from the carpark end, finding just the right length to take an amazing 3 for 6 to make sure we finished the game before the 7:30pm cut-off and take the 2’s to 4th spot in the table, with 9 wins under our belts. Next week it’s the next of our crunch matches as we take on 2nd placed Combe. Please be available if you can!
Report by CB
4th XI
Our last WLD game of the season was at Long (way away) Marston 3 – another Rothschild estate with a cricket ground nested behind a farm in between golden coloured fields. No need for sight screens here!
With some late arrivals forcing the skipper’s hand, we elected to bat first and after the loss of an early wicket, Simon P (opening the batting for a change!) and our young Afghan recruit Hijrat M set about laying a platform (53 for 2 off 12). Wickets continued to tumble as batter after batter found the conditions trickier in the middle than from the sidelines. We subsided for an under par total of 116 all out. Julius C and Yusuf R bowled with venom to attacking fields but the obdurate openers proceeded with caution to 32-0 off 10. Enter Ajay M who changed the complexion of the contest with two wickets in his second over. He continued offering both control and threat to end up with match winning figures of 11-4-21-6. Ibi Z and Will T cut short a late rally by the Long tail to secure the win by 15 runs and push us up into 4th place in the table. A fantastic return to winning ways, just in time for the return of “proper” cricket next week!
Report by PL