After a day of variable weather,
the sky looked like it was lightening up as the captains
tossed up in the middle. Skipper Smith inserted Farley
Hill, and it promptly started raining. Not to be deterred,
the Saints took to the field, with Gearing and Brown
opening the bowling. After a wayward start from Ollie,
and the odd loose delivery from PG, the Farley openers
got to 32 in the fifth over before Payne scooped a delivery
straight into Gearing’s follow through to give Waltham
their first wicket.
Shah Faisal replaced Gearing
for a spell of medium, rearranging Hussain’s stumps
in his second over, while Ollie Brown completed his
four over spell in fine style, generating some fiery
bounce and unlucky to go unrewarded. Smith replaced
him and showed him how to go about getting wickets on
a wet day – a lank half-tracker outside leg stump that
the batsman flicked helpfully towards fine leg. Breaking
with recent tradition, Parker decided to not only get
his hands (rather than his head) to the ball, but also
hold it, and the Farley skipper was sent back to the
pavilion.
In his second over the skipper managed
to land the ball with more regularity, and the batsmen
seemed reluctant to put the pace on the ball themselves,
settling for singles rather than boundaries. Faisal
continued his onslaught and, in tandem with Smith, kept
the run-rate in check at around 5½ an over. Holland
was merrily accumulating runs with a series of (self-confessed)
ugly swipes, but Khan at the other end decided he had
had enough, and carefully positioned himself outside
the crease before letting a delivery from Smith go through
to Connor behind the stumps, who promptly removed the
bails.
Shiny Johnston replaced
Faisal and in his first over, shortly after Holland
had reached his half-century, got a ball to avoid the
bat and shatter Holland’s stumps.
In his second over Johnston swapped
to round the wicket, and promptly got the ball to lift,
catch the edge of Moylan’s bat, and shoot over the hands
of a leaping Hill at fly slip. After retrieving the
ball, Shiny once again gave Moylan problems, this time
flying to the safe hands of Sharpe at point. It was
left to Chris Sharpe and PG to keep the batsmen at bay
in the final two overs, and Farley left the field with
a reasonable 126-6 for the Saints to chase.
The Waltham reply was
kicked off by Chris Sharpe and Shah Faisal, and the
ball disappeared to the boundary on only the fourth
ball off the bat of Sharpe. Fizzer, taking his role
of pinch hitter very seriously, despatched the ball
over the rope on the first good delivery of the second
over off the bowling of Zahid, and didn’t really look
back from there. In an opening stand of 101 there were
several highlights: Sharpe scoring 16 runs off 5 balls
(and a no ball); 5 massive sixes from Faisal; some sharp
running from both batsmen between the wickets; and Faisal
delicately looping the ball up to land between the ‘keeper
and square leg to get to his excellent half-century.
With the score on 101 (at a run rate of over
11 an over), and his own score on 64 from just 29 deliveries,
Faisal generously retired his wicket to give his waiting
team-mates an opportunity in the middle. Parker replaced
him, and got off the mark with a 2 off his third ball,
while Sharpe kept the runs flowing with a barrage of
singles until he missed a delivery from the Farley skipper
to depart for an excellent 33 off 27 deliveries, with
just 11 needed to win.
Manish Gupta skied
a return catch in Jalil’s following over from just his
fourth ball, but having despatched the previous ball
to the fence, just 6 runs were required. With the batsmen
crossed, Parker wasted no time in hitting the second
boundary of the over and picking up a quick single to
level to the scores, and put Shiny Johnston on strike.
With chants of “Six, Six” coming from the pavilion (mainly
from skipper Smith), Shiny strode manfully down the
track on his first ball, swung at the ball, and gifted
Jalil his third wicket through an easy stumping. It
was thus left to Ollie Brown to venture to the middle
and shoulder barge the ball for a leg-bye to give Watham
their second victory against Farley Hill this season,
scoring the required runs in just 13 overs.
Many thanks to Farley for yet another enjoyable
game. We look forward to returning in a few weeks to
give you a chance to restore some pride! |