4th XI vs Hutton CC, 5th XI

This was a top vs bottom clash that played out, in essence, how both captain’s expected it to.

The Hutton captain set the tone of the event at the toss asking us to bat first in order to “make a game of it”. El Capitano did indeed win the toss making it 5/6 this season and granted his opponents wishes and decided to bat first.

The 4s must have felt conned by the opposition when first ball Max Toolan was yorked by a hand grenade much to the bemusement of his 4s comrades. In at 3 was J Mac who joined the remaining opener Zak at the crease. J Mac only lasted 9 balls before chipping it up leaving us on 32-2. Enter the Sweeper, coming off a 24 not out the previous week, he punished anything straight with the majority of his runs going through square leg. Zak Patel nicked behind for a very fast 40, many of the boys left disappointed that they hadn’t scored big. Big Bigga and Mini Sappo were the next 2 in for Shenfield scoring 17 and 14 respectively. JJ after rinsing Max Toolan for 45 minutes for his first baller decided to follow suit and smashed one through to the keeper. He did claim it was all thigh pad but the woody nick could probably be heard from the George and Dragon. El Capitano joined the Sweeper at the crease with Shenfield at 142-6 and the plans of declaring at 200 or after 25 overs fading. Luckily the short side boundary was abused by the 2 lads out there and El Capitano had the pleasure of watching the Sweepers first adults 50. He went on to make 83 off just 55 balls with El Capitano not too far behind when we eventually declared on 65 off 37. We eventually called it a day after 27 overs, giving us 58 overs to bowl out the oppo for those 25 big ones.

The early declaration left us too early for tea so we went out to bowl 10 overs at the opposition, hoping to remove the openers early. We actually went a few steps passed that and left the opposition on 9-5 at tea. Kirby Jnr, the newest induction into the 4s Ringer Hall of Fame alongside El Capitano, Kirby Snr, Will Dunleavy and Arnie, took 4 of those wickets for just the 4 runs while Nilbert took the other for 5 runs. Kirby getting his 5th and final wicket in his first over after tea, it had taken him 2 overs to realise bowling straight was the only tactic needed today. The other wickets shared between El Capitano, J Mac and Swingy McNeil. Hutton managed to put on 33 runs with extras top scoring at 10.

This convincing victory takes us into next weeks top of the table clash with high hopes.

#Upthe4s #VivaBowball