With a feel
like the weather has finally decided that the Cricket
Season can actually start WSL travelled to Hurst for
the regular pre-season fixture. Another opportunity
to get rid of cobwebs and as it transpires there are
several webs to dust off.
Due to the late running of
Arif, Ashton, skipper for the day felt that we would
need to bat. Hurst won the toss, diplomacy prevailed,
and they put WSL into bat. On paper it looked like Waltham
had the batting to take the game to Hurst.
However it was not until batsmen 3 and 5 (Woolford and
Farnon respectively) combined in the middle that it
looked like some resistance to the run of wickets would
start. This also combined with a change to some very
erratic bowling from Hurst - extras rapidly becoming
one of the best batsmen for WSL (32). Generally, however
the Hurst bowling was very efficient in not allowing
the short boundary to be exploited. Patel (7-1-14-1)
Higgs (6.1-1-12-3) and Filingham (9-3-26-4) being the
pick of the Hurst bowling.
With Woolford showing
some real application in the middle (30) sportingly
walking as he was caught behind leg side, Farnon (12)
remaining for a while anchoring the middle orderHurHurt
and Owen (17) trying to take the game to Hurst with
the lower order, it became clear that there would not
be enough runs posted to make things competitive.
104 posted by WSL was chased
down with relative ease by Hurst. Batsman 1; Hollingsworth
49 not out and 3; Hawkes 29 not out easily got the runs
necessary in 20.1 overs. Rash unrewarded, Jackson bowling
with some renewed pace, having gained some yards on
last year (must be the revitalising effect of his tan),
Harris getting the only wicket were some points to take
away from this game.
This is the last game before
the competitive season starts. Hopefully the cobwebs
have now been cleared and WSL can get competitive for
the start of the season next weekend. |