Match Report

1stXI claim first win of the season

A great win for Plaxtol 1stXI thanks to some superb individual performances. After losing the toss and being put into bat Plaxtol started steadily with a good opening bowling spell from Linton parks openers. Beynon & Chilcott sharing a 65 run partnership at the top of the order. After Fred and Dan parted for 17 and 62 respectively run were harder to come by. Mark Francis & Yogi came and went after dealing mostly in boundaries before getting out.Tom Isaac batted very well for 56 and was joined by Fraser who played beautifully and was unlucky to only get 20. Bernie & James holiday combined for some late hitting that proved to be vital to the innings. Clifton hitting 5 boundaries in his quick-fire 27.

Sanders & Holiday opened the bowling and kept things tight from both ends. James getting the reward from the pressure by bowling one of the openers for 4. Sanders was unlucky not to bag a few more wickets after fizzing the ball past the batsman all day finishing with 1-33-9. The bear used all his tricks to totally bamboozle batsman and bowled tidy claiming 2-41-9 and even getting a wicket in his first over. It was the introduction of Beynon that brought further wickets with his skiddy off breaks. Breaking a key partnership in Linton parks middle order then claiming the no.5 bat with a first baller plumb in front! With the oppo struggling for runs they rebuilt steadily but had little choice to try to hit out with the run rate required rising to over 10 an over. Mcgregor bowled well at the death with the batsman looking to go after him but looks in good nick as a bowler going for 18 off his 2 overs. Goodwin returning from a cricket season in Australia bowling leggies went for 16 in his first 3 balls before settling into a rhythm going only for 8 in his last 9 balls. Conceding 24 off his 2 overs getting some turn on the ball.

The turning point of the match came when Mark Francis of Holiday's bowling took a spectacular catch at deep mid wicket, using all his muscular frame to somehow haul the ball back millimetres from going for a boundary. In doing some dismissing the set batsman who was on 81. Sanders and Holiday bowled at the death to bowl out Linton Park for 226. In the process Holiday claimed a cheeky 4-fa! Claiming 4-63-9.

Plaxtol win by 30 runs! Great work boys!

-C.Goodwin