"A win for England"
has been a phrase used very sparingly over the past
few months but yesterday on the opening day of the season
Chris England's team triumphed over Gareth Johnson's
men at Oak Meadow. Batting first, England's XI made
a solid start with Kiani digging in as if were a test
match and Harris at the other end playing his normal
aggressive game against some tidy bowling from Woolford.
Once Harris had retired on the obligatory
25, there was little respite as Jackson smashed his
way to his own 25. However, with Kiani still at the
crease, the Johnson XI still had a chance and good bowling
by Everett, Ahmed and Johnson himself, backed up with
some tidy keeping from youngster Will Thompson eventually
restricted England to 110 from their 20 overs.
In reply the Johnson XI started well in spite of
the early loss of Rasool who fell LBW to Arif. Trudgill
looked in good touch and Johnson battled the up and
down movement on the pitch to score his retirable 25.
He was given good support by Faisal Ahmed who batted
sensibly for 22 not out.
However, the
middle order failed to keep up with the rate with Naveed
Raja bowling very tightly and Woolford was left with
just too much to do as the Johnson's finished a tantalising
8 runs short of victory. |