4th XI vs Harold Wood CC, 5th XI

Shenfield 4XI vs Harold Wood 5XI

🏏UNBEATEN FOR OVER A YEAR🏏

With the 4XI being unbeaten since the 13/8/22, a win on Saturday would allow us to keep our unbeaten streak going for over a year. The Fours saw Yash Mahindroo make his debut with the Stark Duo starting for the first time this year.

The toss was won by El Capitano and we elected to bat, the pitch was typical of an August Day in shenfield with variable bounce and anything back of a length dying in the wicket. Clubman Dave was joined up front by El Capitano for the first (and likely last) time this season. El Capitano was gone first, one drive too many, chipping a back of a length delivery straight to cover for 17(18). The Roo was up the order for this match, coming in at 3, he looked composed out in the middle and probably deserved to reach 50. Clubman Dave was the next to go in the 16th Over for 21(47), bringing the Mystery Spinner out to the middle. This 3rd wicket partnership was the best of the day putting on 45 runs before Joey inadvertently guided one to Gully on 36(59). Dunleavy was the next to go, having batted well for his 35(36) with a surprising cluster of defensive shots mixed with his more well known aggressive shots. Sadly it was the former that saw him meet his demise. Now on the 27th Over we had a strong foundation of 121 runs with 13 overs remaining, plenty of time to get us to a strong total with 6 wickets in hand. Unfortunately we were unable to capitalise on this steady base, the next 2 batsmen in Snr Stark and Harry “only takes worldies” Shorey both departed without troubling the scoreline 0(5) and 0(10) respectively. The next pair in Iron Man and Nilbert, guided us to a respectable total, Iron Man batting well for 16(24) and Nilbert scoring 24(36) left us on 164. A score that was probably below par but one we would always back ourselves defending.

After the, now standard, fantastic tea, we opened the bowling with Nilbert and Flash Mahindroo. Nilbert started with 2 maidens and Flash with just a Single from his first 2 overs. El Capitano had seen enough and pulled Nilbert off to be used at the end of the innings instead. The tactic was now to get the younger lads to bowl all their overs up front and let El Capitano and Nilbert defend the total at the end. Max Johnson was the next to bowl going for just 9 runs from his 4 overs, while Flash ended his 2 spells going for just 5 an over across his 6, these figures not reflecting a brilliant first spell of 4 overs which went for just 14 runs. Iron Man bowled fantastically for his 4 overs, going for just 6 runs, his accurate bowling left the Harold Wood batsmen unable to get the ball off the square. Arrive the 20th over, where Harold Wood had made it to 76 with the loss of no wicket. Although below the run rate, they had 10 wickets to work with for the 89 runs required for victory. Clubman Dave had to bowl his 5 overs ahead of the return of Nilbert. He started off expensively with 13 coming from the first over. Reverting back to his trusty seam up deliveries, Dave turned it around and went on to take 3 wickets for just 11 runs from the next four overs, a very important spell for us. Macca Jnr also took 2 wickets at the other end going for 24 runs from his 5. This left Nilbert and El Capitano with 9 overs to bowl defending 53. It took Nilbert just 3 overs to get his first wicket, that 3rd over being a double wicket maiden. His next 2 overs went for an uncharacteristically high number of runs, 22 runs across the 2 overs. El Capitano although economical was wicketless in his first 6 overs, as he came in to bowl his 7th over the opposition needed 13 to win from the remaining 3. Luckily with the pressure of the 1s watching, the 4’s cutter was put on display. El Capitano taking 3 wickets in the over confirming the 4s victory! Special mention needs to go to Harry “Only takes Worldies” Shorey who has now wrapped up not only catch of the season but second best catch of the season. Fielding at deep square leg he caught their number 7 in the final over. The fantastic catch started the final over collapse and confirmed our victory!

We are now Unbeaten for over a Year at the time of writing this. With 2 games left this season we have won 9 from 11 played, drawing 2. (We also had 3 rain abandonments taking games involved in to 14). Somehow this leaves us in 3rd Place ….. With 2 fixtures to go we need results to go our way to finally get that deserved promotion!

#Upthe4s