A four wicket victory at The Shen against promotion rivals Westcliff-On-Sea saw the 1's climb to the heady heights of second in the division.
Winning the toss, captain and wicket keeper for the day Dave Hickey put the visitors in to bat, hoping for a minimal run chase given our pace attack. It took till the 15th over for the first wicket to fall, courtesy of Sam Bear with the score on 46. The next fell 18 runs later in Lesiba Ngoepe's first over, and the third fell three overs later to Jack Newton. At drinks, the batting side were 90-3 and looking handily placed to reach a minimum target of 210. The run rate was slowed down even further by the tight bowling of Lesiba and Geoge Ballington who took a wicket each. At 142-5 with 10 overs to go, they suddenly decided to gain momentum and scored 94 more runs for the loss of two more wickets, taken by the opening bowlers Matt Salisbury and Jack Plom. A score of 236-7 looked like it was possibly 20 runs too many, but the challenge was set.
The fall of Jamie Walton, Lesiba and Ollie Ekers in the first 12 overs temporarily put us on the back foot. A partnership of 43 between Jack Newton (15) and George steadied the ship, and George soon moved onto 50 (63 balls, 7x4, 1x6). He was the next wicket to fall in a 61 run stand with Plommie, falling 18 runs short of a century. There was a 39 run partnership between Jack and Dave before Jack fell for 44 and the score on 185. Dave and Matt knocked off the remaining runs with both playing without giving away any chances. Dave finished unbeaten on 40, whilst Matt was not out on 31. The target was hit with over four overs to spare.
Next week we travel to Old Brentwoods in the first return fixture of the season. Could we go top??????
Our Partners
We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.
