2nds Fall to Disappointing Defeat After Lacklustre Fielding Display

Scorecard

Match Report

After winning the toss, I debated for a few minutes and then put us into bat. Rawlinson and I went out to open against the 10 men of Rayleigh Fairview and in bizarre fashion, Liam was bowled first ball off his elbow. Greeno joined me and started well, moving the ball around and working the field while at the other end, I eventually avoided a 20 ball duck with a nice drive for 4 through the covers.

Greeno was moving along nicely until he was caught and that bought Matt to the crease. Despite looking at times extremely uncomfortable, fair play to Matt, he dug out some runs and soon was outscoring me as well. I started to get a feel for the pitch and pumped a few wide ones back down the ground.

Matt eventually perished for 31 as he chipped one up and Munch joined me in the middle at 95-3 after 28 overs. In danger of being 30 not out after 45 overs, I started to up the pace and hit a few nice boundaries to get me moving along. After finally passing 50, I opened my arms up and suddenly we were going at 7's with me thugging some boundaries and Munch rotating the strike.

Once I was bowled for 79, Munch took over and despite others coming and going, he took us up past 200 before having to retire hurt. Some good running/edging from Snelly and Walker and we ended on 213; not loads but a total which should have been more than enough.

We went out to field and quickly had our first as Nozza snuck one through the openers defences. I think in hindsight, after taking an early wicket, we thought we would walk it and despite Walker and Nozza bowling really well, their 2 and 3 put on 80 and it looked like we would be more up against it than we thought.

Clarky came on and took a couple of wickets to peg them back but Fairview edged closer and looked to be cruising home, especially helped by some lazy fielding and some poor drops.

Charlie replaced Nozza and bowled really well with some good control as the batsmen looked to boom him around. He was rewarded with a wicket and at the other end, Snelly came on and we started holding on to our catches, one caught down the ground by Greeno and the second by Earing to remove the danger man.

As Fairview got closer, I got a cracking run out, demonstrating a perfect diving pick and flick to all the kids in the team and brought myself onto bowl. A decent 44th over left Fairview needing 16 to win off the last. Snelly bowled a couple in the batsman's arc and fair play, he boomed them over the ropes for 6 to see them home with a ball to spare.

A gutting loss. Sadly we've had a couple that have gone down to the wire and we've not quite been able to get across the line but hopefully the next time, we will be on the other end of it. Looking back though, the main reason we lost that match was the dropped catches which probably would have saved us a good 40 runs if not more. Heads up though boys, back to it next week against Hornchurch Athletic. Lets try and just make it an easy win though, not sure my heart can take a repeat of last time!