Waltham
St Lawrence 2nd XI took the trip to the pittoresque
setting of Yattendon and turned in their most clinical
performance of the season. Having been put in by the
hosts, Waltham began well with Wilkinson and Kiani putting
on 56 for the first wicket with both players playing
some fluent attacking strokes. However with Wilkinson
trapped in front and Kiani edged behind Waltham needed
to regroup but worse was to happen as Chris England
left a straight ball and Waltham were reeling somewhat
at 82 for 3.
In strode Parker to join the
in form McGee and together they created the partnership
of the match putting on 103 for the forth wicket, both
players finding the gaps with regularity and the boundary
fence even more regularly as Purley didn't have an answer.
When Parker was out for an excellent 47 Connor was already
thinking about a declaration but with a small ground
and McGee in the 50's he sent in Thompson with a licence
to attack and attack he did launching Carter for a straight
six then paddle sweeping the same bowler as he made
a quickfire 18.
Javed was given the same brief
and was unlucky not to score a 6 in the first over with
his towering hit scraping a leaf of the tree and was
deemed four according to local rules. At the other end
McGee was continuing to make mincemeat of the Purley
attack as he drove with authority and cut and pulled
the short deliveries.
Eventually, his captain
joined him in the middle with the sole role of getting
him to 100. This didn't take long as they put on 35
for the 7th wicket with McGee doing the bulk of the
scoring to bring up his maiden 100.
Waltham
had scored 277/6 declared and with a hearty tea consumed
they set off in persuit of a deserved victory.
Javed opening the bowling then gave Waltham the
perfect start as he had Glossop and Jayasuria bowled
in the first over with no runs coming from the over.
Waltham were buoyed but not over confident as they had
been in this position before and they would have to
wait a while for the next wicket as Daniels and Rackley
began to rebuild the innings. Thompson got the next
breakthrough as Rackley went for a pull shot and was
excellently caught low down by Wilkinson at mid wicket.
Daniels at the other end was proving a thorn
in the side hitting powerfully down the ground then
loping his way to a series of questionable run out calls
which all seemed to go in his favour. A brief England
spell failed to yield more wickets so Connor brought
Smith and Nebbett on and the game began to change.
Smith got one to turn third delivery and bowled
Measham with a beauty and with Nebbett keeping things
tight Smith continued to bowl his best spell for the
2nd XI with two more wickets including the dangerous
Daniels who had already passed fifty.
With
ten overs left Waltham still needed 4 wickets and with
the obdurate Carter and the useful Masters at the crease,
Waltham's task was looking more and more difficult as
the overs ebbed away.
However, Connor brought
back Javed and England for a final flurry and they didn't
let the team down with Javed bowling Masters and Mattingley
and England taking the wicket Brampton.
Once
again the talk in the huddle was about how we had been
here before and not finished the job and when England
bowled a full toss to Carter and he took a single of
the penultimate ball of the penultimate over England
had what it seemed to be one ball for victory.
With the batsman showing plenty of his stumps England
calmly stepped up and bowled the perfect pitched up
straight delivery and victory was Waltham's amid complaints
about the fading light.
This was a fantastic
victory for Waltham with huge contributions for everbody
in the team. |