Bride Vale 03/07/16

With Mike Moore on holiday, Mark working (a very unusual occurrence) and Bob with gastric problems, the Wanderers only had 8 men to take to Bride Vale (who only had 7 men) on a gloriously sunny afternoon.  This included Ravi and Amit both making their debuts at the beautiful Little Bredy pitch.  The Wanderers elected to bat on a pitch that was reminiscent of the Bride Vale pitches of old with large craters on a length and huge amounts of movement off the pitch.  Fortunately the overnight / morning rain meant that there was little lift.  Ravi (26) was batting in fine attacking flair until one moved off the pitch and bowled him.  Tommy and Simon set about grinding out another Wanderers partnership at Bride Vale until Tommy (6) was bowled due to some lateral movement.  Simon (7) got a shooter that barely got off the ground that clipped the outside edge of off stump!  This left Thomas and Amit at the crease.  Amit (9) was just starting to find his rhythm, despite pulling a muscle before the match started, when he was caught playing an expansive drive!  David was again unfortunate to get a full toss landing on off stump but the ball was legitimate.  Thomas (17) hit a big 6 before tamely hitting back a routine catching opportunity for a bowler who hasn’t played cricket for nearly 20 years!  Mike Henry and Pete were at the crease with Mike hitting a couple of lofted drives before edging to the keeper.  This gave Pete, as the last man standing, an unprecedented opportunity to play the remaining 14 overs!  He managed 3 but added a few runs in extras!

82 was always going to be a low score even on such a tricky wicket.  With the Bride Vale captain, Dean, bowled by Thomas by a ball that came in over a foot, the Wanderers’ tails were up.  However, they were unable to break the partnership which, at tea, had already knocked off half of the required runs.  When Tommy eventually got the breakthrough with a caught behind by Simon, the match was running away from the Wanderers.  Tommy ripped out 3 more with fine figures (6-0-19-4) but Bride Vale won at a canter.

MOM: Tommy

Catch of the day: Simon (the only other chance went down).