Panthers 22/06/25

The Wanderers won the toss and elected to bat at Plush in a 40 over match.  Jon (on holiday from Malaysia) and Brett opened the innings and gave the Wanderers a solid foundation with the 50 partnership inside 11 overs.  Brett (17) was bowled next over to bring in James M.  The two were looking confident together when Jon (43) got a leading edge and was caught (77-2, 17).  Shortly afterwards James (7*) set off for a run and collapsed in agony, with a ruptured achilles. Andy (1) was run out by Charles and then Skipper (0) was caught at short fine leg, getting a top edge to a high full-toss (85-5, 20).  With Tom taking James to hospital and James out for the game, the Wanderers were effectively 7 down and when Tommy (2) left a straight delivery the situation looked bleak (92-5).  Foz and Charles put on 35, with Foz making good use of the short boundary in front of the pavilion.  Charles (9) was caught bringing Ben in to join Foz (22) who was soon LBW (129-8, 31).  This meant Livvy, Jon’s daughter, made her debut batting at number 10.  She performed with great conviction, defending solidly and getting off the mark turning the ball round the corner to fine leg.  Ben was also finding the short boundary and soon the scoreboard passed 150.  Ben (15) played the ball to square-leg who nonchalantly threw the ball in and hit the stumps – while Ben was still wandering around outside of his crease!  This meant Livvy was not out on 1 and the Wanderers scored 151 all out in 36 overs.

Foz opened the bowling and was immediately in the thick of the action with a wide (of course) followed up by a straight ball that kept low and LBW (2-1, 1).  Unfortunately, a back injury prevented Foz (1-14) from bowling anything more than 2 overs.  Ben was looking good until he was dispatched into the next field at the end of his third over and that was the last we saw of the match ball!  Charles had found his radar this week and was threatening to take wickets.  Jon came into the attack and his first ball went where Ben’s last had gone!  He did get a bit of in-swing to bowl the other opening batsman (51-2), with Skipper standing up to pressure the batsmen.  Tommy dropped a sitter at slip and then Shan dropped a lofted drive at mid-off, both off Charles.  Shan was able to make amends by taking a catch next over and then Charles (8-2-30-3) pinned the new batsman back in the crease and took out middle and leg stump.  Jon got a delivery to hold on the pitch just enough to get a leading edge that he hung onto, despite jumping very early to get the loopy ball.  Brett (1-3) took control when he replaced Jon and bowled the batsman through the gate in his first over (there were only 2 scoring shots in his 5 overs!)  There was enough time for Tommy (2-9) to serve a buffet, taking 2 late wickets to finish the game.  Wanderers win by 56 runs.

MOM: Charles – controlled spell of bowling that ensured pressure was applied to the batsmen

Catch of the day: Jon

Quote of the day: Charles “Lets have a single because I want to take on Shan”. 2 balls later Charles was caught, off Shan!