Stelios Special Gets 2s Back On Track

With results not going our way the week before we had to hope for favours from other teams against our promotion rivals. Shenley Village and Northampton Exiles would duly oblige with wins over West Herts and Little Berko and so it was up to us to get ourselves 30 points on the road at Harpenden Dolphins.

We arrived to a ground not for the faint hearted. The summer drought leaving barely a blade on the outfield and a pitch where this season's average score seems to be barely 100. We lost the toss and were asked to bat first. Cue our tactical call up of Mr Pete Tatakis, the clubs expert on these pitches, the tougher the pitch the better he plays. We were 28-3 inside 10 overs but 'Stelios' still remained, taking on board the teams instructions to bat the overs and we will win this game. Sam Green-Armytage came in at 5 and gave the scoreboard a boost with 28 off 20 balls and Krishan Naik continued his good form with 22. Anything above 20 was good going on this pitch, Sam in particular was unlucky to play on to a ball that barely bounced. Tom Flint and Hugh Donnelly contributed much needed run-a-ball 17 and 14no in the last few overs as we reached 157-6 at the end of the innings. Pete remained unbeaten anchoring the innings superbly doubling his score in the last 6 overs to finish 38 not out and carry his bat in testing conditions.

We were happy with the score and confident in our bowlers to defend it. Dolphins started well with a few edges running away for 4 down to 3rd man but once Donnelly (1-13) and Barton-Allen (0-16) found their radar they built some pressure and the Dolphins captain soon skied one to Harry Cox's safe hands - leaving the score 25-1 off 7 overs. We then really squeezed the game both openers bowling their allotted overs and pushing the run rate up past 5 an overs, 40-1 off 15 proved too much for the 2nd opener as he tried to heave Finian Gibson (2-22) over cow corner and was bowled middle stump. Harry Cox (0-33) and Finian both found their rhythm after a couple overs to settle in and Fin got another breakthrough to take out the dangerous no 5, with the run rate climbing to 8 an over off the final 9 overs but with wickets still in hand. Having bowled out our 4 regular bowlers we had to turn to our 'part timers', Euan Ferguson and Sam Green-Armytage got the job done. Euan picking up 3 all caught at mid wicket by Flint and Sam bamboozled them with his off spin to grab 3 for himself, clean bowling one, a fine catch by Tristan  and a great stumping by Rohan Patel for his other. A run out finished the game as Dolphins fell 25 runs short.

We are back into the promotion places as we travel to Hatch End next week with just 2 games to play.

Man of the Match: Pete Tatakis