Scorecard

Maldon II v Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 1st XI (Saturday) on Sat 27 Aug 2022 at 12 noon
Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Won by 5 wickets

Match report For our penultimate away trip of the season the Green made the relatively rare trip to Maldon (or, more accurately, Heybridge) and left with maximum points, courtesy of a five-wicket victory achieved with 13 balls to spare.
The Maldon skipper elected to bat after winning the toss and faced an opening pairing of Calum McDonald (no surprise) and Ali Hammond (interesting choice!). Calum did what Calum does best, bowling a tight yet threatening line for 12 overs straight, claiming 2-26 in a miserly spell; in particular, the in-ducker he produced to castle the Maldon opener was a joy to behold. At the other end, I expected Blondie to come in off a few paces and put the batsmen under pressure with his left-arm spin. What we actually got was Ali steaming in, taking great delight in sending more than one delivery past the batman's ears. Blondie claimed 2-46, figures that may have been even better had he held on to a couple of return catches, one of which was really tough off a full length dive, but the other, as noted elsewhere in the team group chat, will have left him mortified with the drop. Nevertheless, after the excellent work of our openers and a smart piece of fielding by Ethan Frost to claim a run out, Maldon had slumped to 87-5 at the midway point of their innings and thoughts of an early finish started to build. Those thoughts grew in strength as Joe Young claimed the first two of his four-for (4-45) and Maldon found themselves 123-7. However, the Maldon lower order had other ideas, firstly digging-in to stop the rot and then making the most of the occasional loose ball to score a little more freely. Keith Hammond (1-16) broke the first partnership, but we needed two wickets from Joe in the final over of the innings to bring matters to a close. I think the home players felt their 209 represented a competitive total, and they weren't far wrong.
The tea break was brightened by the welcome visit of a Mr Whippy ice-cream van, but then it was down to business. Sadly, we lost Deepak Rajpal in the first over as he sought to make a positive start but snicked off. Opening partner Hansana Gunasekera stood up well to the combined threat of a wily old campaigner at one end and a youngster bowling seriously quickly at the other. Although today wasn't his day, as he fell in single figures to the same combination as Deepak, Hansana will have many more good days scoring lots of runs in the process. While Keith stood firm at the other end, Joe was the third batsmen out cheaply and with the score at 42-3 the confidence in the shouts from the home players grew. Keith and new partner Ollie Stovell steadied the ship, each unconcerned should they play out a succession of dot balls, knowing that the scoring opportunities would come, and so they did. The partnership had accounted for 93 of the remaining target runs when Keith fell for 54, his half century having been reached in an uncharacteristic 84 balls, but it was an absolutely critical contribution towards our eventual victory. Ollie had scored just 2 from his first 17 balls, but once he got going his qualities came to the fore and he played with increasing assurance as he manoeuvred the ball around the field and struck eight boundaries (and one pulled six). Ollie's half century actually came from only 56 balls, a clear sign of the acceleration he achieved, but as it looked likely that he and new partner Blondie would steer us to victory, Ollie's innings came to an end on 63, with 44 runs still needed. At that point Maldon felt they still had a chance, but that was snuffed out by a splendid unbroken sixth-wicket partnership (46*) between Blondie and Matt Norris. Both took a belligerent approach, attacking the Maldon bowlers, striking multiple punishing blows to the boundary, not the least of which was Nee-Naw's majestic six over extra cover that brought the match to a conclusion. It was a delightful way to finish and allowed us time for a couple of beers in the early evening sunshine before taking our leave; this was a good day.

Maldon II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 3w 4b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
15
209 (44.5 overs)		     
Oliver Hull ct  J Young b A Hammond 11 41 26.83
James Ellis b  C McDonald 18 25 3 72.00
Mike Smith ct  M Norris b A Hammond 8 12 2 66.67
Jamie Brown run out  (E Frost) 11 31 1 35.48
Laurence Cook lbw  C McDonald 5 6 1 83.33
Liam Saxton lbw  J Young 37 33 4 2 112.12
James Gregory ct  K Hammond b K Hammond 47 58 6 81.03
Angus Beames ct  H Gunasekera b J Young 0 4 0
Henry Miller ct  H Gunasekera b J Young 43 46 7 93.48
Jack Riley b  J Young 13 17 2 76.47
Rufus Miller Not Out  1 1 100

Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 1st XI (Saturday) Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Calum McDonald12.0526213.002.17
Alastair Hammond8.0046223.005.75
Ollie Stovell4.012700.006.75
Joe Young10.5345411.254.15
Jens Wair6.004300.007.17
Keith-Henry Hammond4.0116116.004.00

Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 1st XI (Saturday) Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
6w 5b 4lb 
for 5 wickets
15
212		        
Deepak Rajpal ct  L Cook b J Riley 4 4 1 100
Hansana Gunasekera ct  L Cook b J Riley 7 24 1 29.17 2
Keith-Henry Hammond b  J Ellis 54 88 9 61.36 1
Joe Young b  H Miller 8 22 1 36.36 1
Ollie Stovell ct  R Miller b J Ellis 63 76 8 1 82.89
Alastair Hammond Not Out  36 26 4 138.46
Matt Norris Not Out  25 17 3 1 147.06 1
Tom Lee  
Calum McDonald  
Jens Wair  
Ethan Frost  

Maldon II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jack Riley12.0331215.502.58
Angus Beames10.515800.005.35
Henry Miller3.00919.003.00
James Ellis12.0069234.505.75
Rufus Miller5.003600.007.20

  • Umpire :
  • Scorer :
    Dave?