Coombe Bissett 04/06/18

After another hot and sunny lunchtime beer at the Drovers, the Wanderers won the all-important toss and elected to bat in the heat of the day.  Peter and Mike W (on debut) opened the batting in the best possible way by scoring quickly.  The 50 stand was brought up in the 10th over and the next 50 even quicker, with Peter in attacking form hitting 3 sixes in his 73.  The stand was worth 107 and is the highest opening partnership since David And Fred put on 163 for the first wicket at Hazelbury Bryan in 2014.  Simon came in and was also aggressive in his batting, getting off the mark with a pull for four and hitting 1 enormous six well into the next field.  During his quickfire 59, Simon was dropped several times and managed to land the ball in spaces between fielders, but these ‘lives’ give you more reason to capitalise.  Mike was c&b for 34 and Adam stumped on 2 before Zeeshan (26) (on debut) came and joined Simon for some attacking flair – one massive drive to cow-corner (longest boundary on the park) would have been six on most grounds but on this occasion provided a testing opportunity for a tricky catch that went down.  Mike J (11) came in at the end and David had a good flick off his legs for a four.  223-5 in 40 overs was above par for ground and pitch.

Mike J and Zeeshan opened the attack and immediately started to create scoreboard pressure.  Zeeshan (12-2) suffered a shock six before taking an excellent return catch next ball.  His next over invited a snick outside of off stump which Mike W (giving Simon a break from keeping duties) took comfortably.  The opening 12 overs from these two put the Wanderers in complete control and Mike J in particular (6-3-3-0) caused all sorts of problems.  Luke bowled well for his wicket and PW had an over, but the Wanderers only needed to bowl 26 overs to complete the victory – mainly because of a magnificent spell of bowling from David.  With both Bob and Simon in his ear telling him to pitch it up, every delivery in the zone looked like getting a wicket, and 6-19 was a true reflection of the difficulty they had playing him on a tricky surface.  It also reflected on how well the Wanderers batsmen had coped with the variation offered by the home side.  92 all out meant a victory by 131 runs – joint 9th biggest runs win in DWCC history!

MOM: David

Catch of the day: Zeeshan

Quote of the day: Simon to David – “Length is important after all”