Hazelbury Bryan 08/09/19

On a beautiful day in the September sunshine, the Wanderers elected to bat in a 35 overs match.  Mark was loaned to the hosts as they were short.  Mike M and David opened the innings with David glancing Mark to the 3rd man boundary in the first over.  However, he was also dropped by the keeper and first slip as Mark bowled 4 overs for 9 runs.  The exchanges were tense and runs difficult to find.  Mike’s last scoring shot was for a quick (as quick as Mike goes) single that went for 4 overthrows!  He was first out bowled in the next over for 17 leaving the score at 46-1 from 15 overs.  Will joined his dad at the crease and the pair of them managed to rotate the strike.  David (38) was bowled in the 27th over with the score on 121-2 with Simon coming in.  Simon was off the mark first ball with a four and continued to hit boundaries through his innings with great support from Will who was striking the ball superbly.  Mark came on to bowl at Simon and it was Simon who got the better of the encounter, glancing the ball to the third man boundary twice.  Simon was only in for 5 overs but scored 35 before he was caught on the cow boundary.  The pair of them had run some extraordinary runs which was of concern for the fielding team.  This continued when Tommy came in to join Will for the last 3 overs.  Tommy nearly hit a legitimate six when he hit a full ball to the cow boundary but was dropped on the line.  This was the only time he managed to get the ball off the square but with Will (92no) scoring freely at the other end, the Wanderers moved from 87-1 from 24 overs to 227-3 at innings close!

Luke (26-1) took an important wicket in the first over hitting the top of middle stump before Ali took one next over when he drew the batsman into an edge with a brilliant away swinger that Simon caught at full stretch in front of first slip.  Luke was unlucky when an attempted hook was top edged but landed in-between Dane and Ali.  Ali claimed another when Mike M held onto a catch.  Ali (4-1-4-4) bowled his next two victims with some sublime bowling, one ball cut in up the hill off the seam to hit the pads onto the stumps and the other swung away to take the top of off-stump!  Umair struggled a little with the slope but still managed some great deliveries bowling across the batsmen.  PW came onto bowl and straight away chances developed, Will nearly getting a wicket with a direct hit run out chance and then PW getting a first wicket when Simon took a sharp chance from a thin edge.  Two more wickets were to come for PW as he found a good line and length and took 25-3 in his 6 overs.  Tommy was on at the other end and despite some big hits well over the cow-corner boundary, he got a wicket when Simon took a sharp stumping.  The last batsman was Mark and although he played well, Tommy (28-2) bowled him for 12 to complete a 129 run victory.

MOM: Ali – a breath-taking spell of bowling!

Catch of the day: Simon – catch off Ali

Quotes of the day: “If he had another brain cell, he’d be a fuchsia”

From David after Tommy came on to bowl and was hit for 6 “I’d recommend the calamari and the prawns [from the buffet]”