Erasmus on Fire for DCC!!

Saturday 16th June..

Dorking 1st XI welcomed Worcester Park to Pixham for the 7th fixture of the season and 3rd place playing 4th place is was set to be a tough fixture for Dorking.

With both teams arriving early and warming up, the clouds started to form above in the sky’s. Dorking’s skipper Toby Blood won the toss and elected to bowl first as Dorking were keen to take advantage of any early cloud conditions. A couple of team changes gave others some good opportunities as Douthwaite was out as due to feature against West Indies A, which we wish him all the best. Erasmus and Corbett took the new ball.. Worcester Park got off to a steady with the score 34 for no loss. Erasmus then got the reward for his consistent length finding the edge to both openers through to the keeper (Blood). Erasmus with confidence high then removed Jonny Evans for a duck bowling him and that put Dorking on the front foot with the score 43-3. Danny Palmer and Rob Hill were the pair at the crease and had to bat with extreme caution. Ward came into the attack bowling tight lines and thought he had picked up his reward when a chance went down at slip. Blood then rotated his bowlers with Myers and Edwards also bowling economically. Palmer and Hill knocking it around picking up the odd boundary set to frustrate Dorking. They put on an incredible stand which took the game away from Dorking and batted very well. Both Batsmen pass there respective 50s and starting to accelerate, the stand was now worth 148 runs. Skipper Blood turned to Ward to provide a comeback and a opening to get Dorking back into this game. At the score 191-3 Ward had immediate success removing Palmer (76) and King (0) in his first over of his second spell. Corbett was brought back in the next over and also had a immediate impact when picking up 2 wickets in his over. Score now 194-7 and Dorking have well and truly turned the game around in two overs. Danger Man Hill was still in on 76 and after long chats with Ward, Blood, Erasmus they decided bring Erasmus straight on after Corbett’s over. Erasmus picked up on the trend and took 2 wickets in that over also removing the danger man Hill with a lovely delivery. Corbett then finished the innings off the next over to bowl out Worcester Park for 197. Erasmus took 5-27 off 11 overs. Corbett 3-44 off 12 overs and Ward 2-33 off 9 overs.

Both clubs enjoying a delightful tea before heading back out for the second innings.

Dorking’s opening pair were the inform run machine Erasmus and newly promoted Gayle after a hundred and a 90 not out in the 2s. Erasmus started his innings in usual fashion a couple of solid boundaries. Gayle unfortunately departed early when hitting the ball straight down fine legs throat. Lister was the new man in and got off the mark with some crunching boundaries but Faller-Fritsch then picked up his second of the match. Dorking now 31-2 and in a bit of trouble. Erasmus still playing nicely picking up regular runs, Andrew Homewood entered the crease with bags of experience and great opportunity to build a key partnership with Erasmus. These two did just that batting beautifully. Erasmus (114) and A Homewood (68*) put on 166 and played with great composure and responsibility. Fantastic innings from both but truly outstanding game for Erasmus to score a hundred and take 5 wickets. Dorking win by 7 wickets to take us to joint second in the league and 8 points behind top.. Team spirit is flying high at the club.

Updated 13:16 - 15 Oct 2019 by Chris Pike