A man of the match performance
from Chris Burge was not enough to give Waltham St Lawrence
victory in this friendly match against Hurst. On a gloriously
sunny day at Oak Meadow, Hurst won the toss and elected
to bat and in spite of Hawkes falling to Johnson's perfect
in swinger Hurst rattled along relatively untroubled
at a worrying 5 runs per over. However, in the 15th
over Riazuddin fell LBW to Burge 2 shy of his fifty
and in his next over Burge had Long well caught by Johnson.
The tide was turning Waltham's way and Hurst were feeling
the pressure of not scoring the runs as fast as they
liked. Woolford then brought Connor and Thompson on
to bowl in tandem for the last twelve overs and this
proved to be the pivotal moment as both bowlers picked
up 3 wickets a piece as Hurst were bowled out for 198.
So Waltham set out for victory after tea but were soon
in trouble as Connor left a straight one first ball
then Johnson was unluckily given out LBW as they slumped
to 2 for 2. Van Zyl however played a patient knock and
in spite of losing Kiani, Woolford and Thompson he found
an ally in Burge and together they put on 44 for the
6th wicket. After that Burge really kicked on contrasting
some bludgeoning hits from Christodolou with some fine
punched drives until he was last man out for a fantastic
42, his best for the club. In between, Owen completed
the ignominy of being dismissed for 0 on three consecutive
occasions. This was again a good performance from Waltham
St Lawrence and James Woolford and his team can surely
go into the new season in good heart. |