Chilwell Beat Ellerslie After Traynor Bags Four

Chilwell’s 2nd XI trounced Ellerslie’s 3rd XI to halt their advance in Division H on Saturday.

Amidst chilly winds and cloudy skies, captain Jack Webb opted to bowl first on a green wicket at the Hetley Pearson Recreation Ground. Finlay Traynor opened the bowling against Ved Parkash and Mohammad Amjid as Ellerslie set out to extend their winning stretch. Parkash gave the hosts a positive start hitting a couple of boundaries in the first two overs. Traynor responded with a maiden over while Webb restricted the scoring from the other end, giving only 8 runs in his next 4 overs. Traynor took the first wicket in the 7th over as Amjid nicked him to the infallible Alex Noon behind the stumps.

Akhlaq Hussain joined Parkash and they added another 20 runs in five overs, but Traynor would not let off. He bowled Hussain in the 13th over and then gave Noon another catch with his next delivery to become Ellerslie’s most prolific bowler of the summer. Having reduced the hosts to 45/3, Traynor completed his opening spell with a remarkable average of 6. Webb introduced Mihir Patel to bowl the 15th over and the young spinner made his mark in good time. Playing his first match of adult cricket, the under12s skipper dismissed Neil Appadurai LBW on 2 as Chilwell slipped to 65/4. Azam Mehmood helped Parkash compile 33 runs in the following 5 overs before the latter miscued Patel to Sachin Mathivanan at mid-wicket on 49.

Two overs later, Patel caught Mehmood off his own bowling on 30 and kept the scoreboard on 107/6 in the 26th over. The new batsmen, Umar Hussain and Danyal Aziz, added 35 runs for the 7th wicket. Oliver Jenkinson broke their stand in the 32nd over when Noon pouched another to dismiss Hussain on 22. With 10 overs left in the innings, Traynor replaced Mathivanan who conceded 9 runs in his 3 overs. Shortly after, Aziz became Traynor’s fourth victim thanks to a stupendous one-handed catch from Webb. Then, Webb brought himself back on to bowl Trevor Peake and Muhammad Rizwan in successive overs and restricted Chilwell to 173/10.

After lunch, the sun emerged from behind the clouds and Ellerslie looked poised to win when Ben Skillings slashed Rizwan to the fence in the very first ball of the second innings. However, the chase unravelled henceforth as Rizwan bowled Skillings in the 3rd over and Hussain dismissed Swayam Bajpai for nought two balls later. It was Martin Foulds who dropped anchor and ensured that the cookie did not crumble any sooner than it did. Chilwell were relentless on the field and Parkash ran Noon out as the scoreboard read 6/3. In at number five, Adam Pogue got off the mark with a lofted cut over third man before Rizwan jolted his stumps. The fifth wicket fell three overs later when Rizwan bowled Patel on 2 to earn figures of 5/3 from his first 6 overs.

As the pitch often surprised the batsmen with uneven bounce and inconsistent turn, it was unforgiving to say the least. Aziz bowled Webb on 3 to leave Ellerslie on 26/6 by the end of the 21st over. Traynor helped Foulds put on 22 runs for the 7th wicket before being caught. After hitting a superb boundary, Jenkinson was dismissed in the 28th over. Then, Aziz had Ethan Scott caught on 6 to whittle the visitors down to 58/9. Ellerslie tried to bat the overs out as Foulds soldiered on to 20 while Mathivanan gobbled up 39 deliveries to score a single. Although the pair gritted their teeth to withstand 11 overs of hostile bowling, Foulds fell LBW in the penultimate ball of the innings and Chilwell won by 105 runs.

The 3rd XI will return to East Leake next Saturday when they host table-toppers Oxton.