Playing conditions gave the skipper a tough decision should he have won the toss. He finally decided that we should bat first which is exactly what we did. For those that had played at Cockington know its not the biggest ground in Devon but scoring is not easy, we were not sure on the score we wanted to post but with the pitch playing slow and variable bounce we ended up setting Torquay 3rd team 122 to win. We felt that maybe this was 20 -30 runs short but knowing the quality in our bowling we gave ourselves a fighting chance. The pitch did seem a little dryer when it came around to the second innings and it seemed a little easier to time the ball but some great fielding kept the score down. Phil Hunt was at it again with some incredible bowling helped by the reluctance of there batsman to attack on a difficult afternoon for scoring. the longer the innings went on the more confidence that we gained and when Dylan came on for his second spell we were confident of a win. Nigel had reluctantly given himself a spell towards the end of the innings and managed to take wickets in regular burst thanks to some good hands from Ross. with the scoring rate on the slide and the run rate rising the pressure rose on both teams but unfortunately we were right to have thought that we were 20-30 runs short as there last wicket partnership managed to get a single on the second ball of the over and another on the third to tie the game. a third over off the fourth ball gave them the win with 2 balls to spare.
Although we were all a little disappointed with the result we learnt a lot from this situation and we will draw some good experiences. Dylan did exceptionally well when given the new ball and then asked to come on in the last couple of overs to finish the game. The batsman did well to bat the overs in difficult conditions and the fielders did very well to protect each and every valuable run.
This week we move on and take the positive from last week aiming for a big win.