It should have been no surprise
to have incurred a 108 run defeat to a Sonning 2nds
side, considering the side put out but the experience
of it was still painful.
With only five players of first
team experience( three colts were played), acting skipper
Chris England opted to field having won the toss. Colt,
Robert Cox, was given the opportunity to show what he
could do with the new ball and delivered a lively (if
at times too short) spell of pace bowling. The breakthrough,
however, came from Rasheed Arif at the other end when
he bowled opener Benning behind his legs.
This brought the previously
high scoring Ahmed to the crease, and he soon began
to punish anything loose. England
came on himself in an attempt to stem the run flow but
conceded an uncharacteristic 18 runs in his first over!
With the other opener Smith, steadily accumulating,
Sonning were scoring with ease.
Fortunately, England quickly found
his rhythm and proceeded to take the next three wickets
and with the assistance of newcomer Abid Hussain, Sonning
were pegged back to 138 for 5. This brought Sonning’s
captain Steve Rayfield into bat, who briskly knocked
up 32. He and Anderson took the visitor’s score over
the 200 mark. Sonning ended up with 211 for 7 in their
45 overs thanks in part to some awful ground fielding
by the home side.
To stand any chance of victory,
Waltham needed big runs from their
top order. Sadly this was not to be. Sonning’s opening
bowler, Bainbrigge, had both Ashton(0) and Johnson(1)
swiftly back in the pavilion and Waltham
were reeling. Hussain managed to ride his luck for a
while but he skied one too many and was caught. Woolford
followed shortly after and at 38 for 4, Waltham
were staring down the barrel of defeat.
Chris England came to the wicket and immediately went
on the offensive, dispatching the previously dangerous
Bainbrigge for several boundaries. However, the bowler
took full advantage of the lack of experience at the
other end by dismissing Sharpe, Brown, Cox and Arif
cheaply. Now left with the tail, England
managed to manipulate the strike for several overs to
secure his first half-century of the season but trying
the same feat again was stumped off the bowling of Anderson.
The Waltham innings crumbled to
a meagre 103 all out. |