Sunday XI vs Buccaneers

The Sunday XI were back in action after 2 weeks off, and welcomed The Buccaneers to The Mote. A run around on Saturday evening to get players in, 11 players eventually took to the field as The Mote won the toss. A steady start from The Buccaneers openers saw them accumulate at a good rate, seeing off the opening bowling of Rhys Williams and Laurence Waters for the loss of one wicket, a catch at second slip from Matt White off Laurence. A change of bowling saw the spin of Rob Adams and James Waterson introduced, claiming 4 wickets between them in 14 overs, leaving The Buccaneers 116-5 after 26 overs; Steve Buckland taking 2 very good catches behind the stumps. Chris Feltham and Matt White finished the bowling, and we eventually allowed The Buccaneers to get to 218-6, probably 20 or 30 runs more than they should have got as a result of loose bowling and relaxed fielding.

To the batting, and Steve Buckland and Mark Bristow opened, but didnt last very long, falling for 13 and 8 respectively. This brought about a bit of a collapse from The Mote, as Tom Sterling, Chris Feltham and James Joseph all came and went without troubling the scoring, resulting in The Mote being 25-5 after just 10 overs. An embarrasing defeat looked on the cards as Matt White joined Rhys Williams in the middle, looking to rebuild. These two did a very good job of steadying The Mote ship, making a partnership of 79 when Matt fell for 43, being bowled by a ball that kept low with the score on 104 after 24 overs. Laurence then joined Rhys in the middle for another solid partnership of 92 when Laurence was caught for 51 in the 38th over, just 22 runs from victory. By this time Rhys had batted brilliantly to pass his 50, eventually finishing on a personal best of 68*. Not bad for someone who didn't want to bat! The Mote eventually got to 205-7 from the 40 overs, coming up just short of the 219 target.

To get to a score of 205 after being 25-5 is real credit to Matt, Laurence and especially Rhys for sticking at it on a difficult track, saving us from an embarassing defeat. Hopefully this game has given Rhys the confidence to be able to bat like this again at the weekend, taking on board the advice from Matt and Laurence.

We have another week off this weekend, and then welcome Rainham back to The Mote on 16th August for our second game against them of the season, looking to do the double over them.