Brockenhurst 1s vs New Milton III

Brockenhurst beaten in the last fixture of the season

The Brockenhurst players arrived on time, except for the captain, at Fernhill Sports Ground full of optimism for the last league game of the season having risen from relegation zone to third in the table after winning 9 games out of the last 10. However the side was lacking one key player, Loganathan, who was the man of the match in the Stone Cup final victory. When Jariwala did arrive he duly lost the toss and the New Milton captain elected to bat first on what looked a good batting track but with a bit of grass on it to keep the bowlers interested.

Jarvis opened the bowling one end with a good rhythm and only conceded one run in his first two overs. Jariwala decided to take it upon himself to open the other end, having lacked any consistency all season. It was quite a first over which went for 17 runs and included 2 dropped catches, another four ball mishit to 'throwit' Rohit at square leg after he had just swapped with Greenwood and a late cut straight to Shah at gully. The captain duly took himself off and brought on Taylor who proved to be his miserly self until his 5th over. New Milton openers, Wakefield and Locke, reached their 50 stand by the 15th over. By then Rogers and Greenwood had replaced Jarvis and Taylor. Both duly went on the dismiss each of the openers LBW, which was timely as Locke had just started to accelerate the run rate. This was after the younger Rogers has had been rushed off to Lymington hospital having dislocated his right shoulder, attempting to catch a ball that went high and over him, off Greenwood. He did get a hand on it after doing a fine pirouette. There were 2 more catches dropped during the innings, one by senior Rogers off his own bowling and one by Greenwood right on the mid-wicket boundary.

New Milton found themselves at 65 for 2 in the 19th over. Miller, Miller and Miller followed. With the first two Millers scoring quickly with some handsome straight drives for 6. The first Miller got caught by Rogers off the bowling of Sampson with the score at 128, the third was run out by Williams for one and the third Miller scored 84 before being caught by Jariwala off Taylor with the score on 191. New Milton finished their 40 overs - 201 for 8. 5 wickets were shared equally between Rogers, Greenwood, Taylor, Jariwala and Sampson, the remainder being run outs. Jarvis went wicketless but was probably the pick of the bowlers with figures of 8 over for 25.

Brockehurst were relieved that the score wasn't much higher, having seen New Milton start so well and with having to field with 10 men most of the innings. Sampson and Shah, returning after missing 2 weeks through injury, opened the Brockenhurst innings. the pair found it difficult to score off some very accurate bowling by the New Milton bowlers, Dyer-Smith and Baker. When Sampson was run out the score was 9 in the 7th over. Surprisingly the Brockenhurst captain sent in Lewis instead of Jarvis, who was the leading run scorer for the 1st XI this season at the start of the game. Lewis and Shah couldn't increase the run rate materially as the New Milton bowlers continued to bowl a tight line and length. The score was 53 at drinks and 84 when Lewis got bowled for 15 by Gargaro in the 28th over. Jarvis announced his arrival with a lovely straight boundary, but unfortunately for Brockenhurst was bowled soon after. Williams, Jariwala, Rogers and Greenwood came and went fairly quickly and left Brockenhurst with little chance of winning with the score at 141 for 7 when Taylor arrived at the crease in the 38th over. Brockenhurst finished the 40 overs with 155 on the board and Shah on 94 not out. With only 9 points from the game Brockenhurst finished the 2018 season in 5th place in RD1SW.