It was case of deja vu as the 1's failed to gain a second successive league win when we were beaten by two wickets at home to Old Southendian & Southchurch at The Shen.
Put in to bat, tight bowling restricted us to just 22 runs in the first eight overs. George Ballington, Jamie Walton and Jack Plom fell in 22 balls for just eight runs before Lesiba Ngoepe came and Tom Arnold came in to steady the ship. Lezza smashed their overseas for 24 in his first over before the bowler gained his revenge, catching him off his own bowling in his next over.
Tom Arnold was one of three controversial decisions that was the next to go, just after drinks. James Salisbury came and went and The captain chased a ball that was close to landing on a THIRD strip and then got himself run out, thanks to a sharp piece of fielding. Seven wickets had fallen for 114 and we were into the 31st over. A partnership of 40 between Jack Newton and Jake Sedgley got us past 150 and a batting point before Jake holed out to mid-on. Jack was left stranded as Alex Rickenbach and Ollie Castell didn't add any runs, top scoring with 34 as the team were bowled out for 156 in the 43rd over. We were a minimum of 40 runs light on a pitch that didn't seem troublesome.
A superb flying one handed catch by James off the bowling of Tom was followed by a smart slip catch by Lezza off Plommy the very next ball had them reeling at 10-2, giving us cause for optimism. Three wickets for Lezza and two more for Jack saw them struggling at 75-6 at drinks, still not halfway towards their target. A match winning partnership of 62 was achieved before the fall of the seventh wicket, and although their captain was the eighth wicket to fall with 12 still required, they hit the winning runs in the 46th over.
Next week we travel to unbeaten Aztecs. Hopefully, we can get back on the winning trail.
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