Scorecard

Croft II v Cosby Cricket Club 2nd XI on Sat 16 Aug 2008 at
Cosby Cricket Club Won by 151 runs (24 points)

Match report 2nd XI crush Croft to maintain promotion charge

Match Report: Croft II v Cosby II, Saturday 16th August 2008

The second team arrived at near neighbours Croft confident that they could maintain there promotion charge by picking up the victory. The side was laden with batsmen this week so perhaps it wasn't the worst turn of events when the Croft skipper won the toss and decided to have a bowl.

With the surplus of batsmen Captain Saus decide a new opening partnership was the order of the day and sent Liu Xiang and Foxy out to open the innings. It was a decission that paid off handsomely as the pair took to the none too threatening Croft attack with Foxall in particular looking in aggressive form. The pair had put on 75 and in good time before Foxy fell for 44 to what wills urely be one of the catches of the season. Foxy looked to spank the ball over cover but unfortunately got more height than distance but as it was way over covers shoulder the danger looked minimal. With the ball falling rapidly towards earth the young Croft fielder dived full length for the ball taking a catch one handed a mateer of inches from the ground, hats off young man.

After Foxys departure Coxy came to the crease and Yao Ming took up the mantle of scoring the bulk of the runs. Despite a couple of slices of luck where the keeper dropped him twice Chinas olympic hero batted brilliantly with run scoring coming relatively easy. He reached 50 and then really accelerated punishing the wayward Croft attack. At the same time Coxy was offering support despite at times not looking like he knew which end of the bat to hold. Gok eventually fell for 81 getting bowled by a ball that kept a bit low. He and Coxy had put on 90 for the 2nd wicket and the 2s were well placed at 165 for 2 with still 10 overs to spare.

The task was nowe to get as high score as possible. Despite a couple of failures the 2s pushed the score up to 223 for 6 with Coxy getting 31 before being bowled and Sausage finishing the innings 30 not out.

After an excellent tea (nice wasp sandwich Coxy?), we went out to field confident in our score but somewhat unsure due to the depleted nature of our bowling attack. With only 3 regular bowlers and 2 of them slow bowlers at that Saus was forced to open with "Big" Phil Needham and Sheriff. This again proved to be a blessing as Andy proved to be the right bowler for the wicket. Once he removed Crofts brash and cocky opener thanks to a smart stumping by Sullivan no-one else offered much resistance as he and Phil tore into the Croft batting order. 3 wickets fell in an over including a direct hit run out from Phil and the 2s tails were up. When Phil picked up 2 in an over as well Croft were 5 down with barely 20 on the board.

At this point Croft tried offering some resistance with ther number 6 dead batting and skipper trying to whack the up to a decent score. The tactic didn't work though as Sheriff picked up another wicket getting a thin edge that Russ took behind the stumps. The remaining Croft batsmen put up litlle fight as Bills picked upa wicket and Andy finished with 6 to leave croft dismissed for a paltry 72 and the 2s had picked up another 24 points.

Result: Cosby II win by 151 runs

Points: Croft II 2 pts, Cosby II 24 pts.

MOM: A few good performances this week, mentions must go to Andy and Phil for the bowling and Foxy, Coxy and Saus with the bat. However MOM this week goes to Nigel "Face of the Beijing Olympics" Meredith for his well crafted 81 that set us up for a score that was far too much for Croft.

Verdict: A strong performance against an albeit weel Croft side. Just shows what a patient and considered approach to batting can achieve.

Cosby Cricket Club 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
223		        
Nigel Meredith Bowled  81
Mark Foxall Caught  44
Matt Cox Bowled  31
Russell Sullivan Bowled  1 2 2
Steve Henshaw Caught  12
Curtis Holloway Lbw  0
Simon Jones Not Out  30
Ben Spencer Not Out  5
Phil Needham   1
Andy Gray  
Matthew Bills   1

Croft II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Croft II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
72 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Cosby Cricket Club 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Phil Needham9.0038219.004.22
Andy Gray10.022864.672.80
Matthew Bills1.00616.006.00