Scorecard

Boxted II v Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 2nd XI (Saturday) on Sat 27 Jul 2024 at 1pm
Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Won by 4 wickets

Match report The 2s rocked up to bottom of the league Boxted on Saturday boyed with confidence of winning 3 of the last 4 and playing some watchable cricket whilst doing so.

With the sun shining, the deck flat and confidence high amongst batsman everything screamed bat first and put a total up. So when captain Murray won the toss we put on our whites for a sweaty 3 hours in the field, maybe too stubborn to his bowl first ways.

Some more experienced players commented they'd never seen the sun shine like this before in Boxted, but unfortunately for us experiencing this new weather did not put off the Boxted opening batsman as they started very quickly. Using the pace put on the ball from our opening bowlers, espcially Patel who kept finding edges flying to the boundary, they raced to 32 from 5 overs before T.Collins got the breakthrough, trapping the captain LBW, a first of his 3 wickets of the afternoon.

This did not detur Boxted as they carried on the aggressive batting as they reached 50 before 8 overs had been bowled.

This caused Murray to turn to Coppin, one of his most consistent bowlers of the year to take the pace off the ball. A decision that was immediately rewarded as Coppin struck in his first over trapping the other opener plumb LBW.

This was a turning point in the Boxted innings as Coppin continued to take 2 further wickets in his next 3 overs, an unconventional hit wicket followed by a very sharp piece of glove work by Ollie Licence to snaffle a good catch off what would have surley been a wide the batsman chased.

From the other end T.Collins continued to toil, having 3 catches dropped off his bowling in varying difficulties. However late in his spell he was rewarded with a nice Father/Son wicket as S.Collins took a low chance in close. This left Boxted 83-5 at drinks, a good comeback from the Green bowlers but still more than we had hoped.

Immediately after drinks Collins and Coppin (3-28) efficiently concluded their spells and once again Collins (3-37) was rewarded in his final over assisted by a candidate for catch of the season from Licence fully stretched to his right to take a big edge. This left Boxted 83-6 and our tails were up.

However, the approach changed from our hosts as Murray (1-16) brought himself on for Collins and Agarwal (1-14) on for Coppin. The batsman became a brick wall in front of the stumps determined not to let us take the final wickets. Dispite many close misses wickets did not tumble and Boxted closed 127-8 from their 40.

At the half way point we were frustrated not to have taken the final wickets but happy with the total to chase, a lot lower than it seemed it would be. A large postive the commaradary in the field, as we never let spirits drop dispite the catches that we did, making it a very enjoyable outing.

A strong looking pair of Polley and Axon opened the batting for us, and soon put us on our way in the chase and looked very comfortable until we reached 32 when a leg side delivery clipped off Polley (16) pads onto his own stumps.

This brought in Bradbury, who reined in his normally highly aggressive approach and put away some loose balls as he and Axon brought us up for 54. What happened next was one for the history books as normally incredibly patient Axon (15) chased a wide one and dutifully walked off after being caught behind, 54-2.

Back from a knee injury Frost marched in confidently at number 4 but after some confusion on an LBW/caught behind situation, ended up walking back only 3 balls later. At 54-3 and flash backs started to early season performance where this 127 target seemed a long way off.

Murray wandered in to join Badbury, who together stabilised the innings adding 31 together before drinks brining us to 84-3. However, the old addage drinks brings wickets has never more been true as just 2 balls after the break Bradbury played all around a straight one to leave for (35).

In the next 6 overs Murray was joined by S.Collins (2) and Licence (4) who both fell to a similar fate to Bradbury missing straight deliveries from the steady Boxted bowling.

As Licence departed, T.Collins confidently walked in with only 12 needed but was warned off trying to finish it in 3 balls by Captain sensible at the non-strikers end repeatedly telling him to bat sensibly.

This advice, although boring, did pay dividends as Murray (32*) and T.Collins (3*) looked comfortable as the final runs ticked by. A solid 4 wicket victory for the 2s bringing the recent form to 4 wins and 1 loss in the last 5.

POTM- was a tough one this week. Excellent performance behind the stumps by Licence in his first game with the gloves this year, and controlled bowling as always by Coppin were strong candidates.

But player of the match goes to T.Collins for his opening spell of 3-37 and level headed approach to batting at the end to see us over the line.

Boxted II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 8w 6b  
for 8 wickets
16
127 (40.0 overs)		     
Garry Green lbw  T Collins 9 17 2 52.94
Tom Crayston lbw  L Coppin 31 24 6 129.17
Sanjeev Arya hit wicket  L Coppin 11 26 2 42.31
Ronnie Thomson ct  O Licence b L Coppin 11 19 2 57.89
Steve Crayston ct  O Licence b T Collins 5 6 83.33
Dexter Chisnall ct  S Collins b T Collins 3 24 12.50
Roy Thomson b  D Agrawal 16 54 2 29.63
Daniel Green Not Out  19 63 2 30.16
Jefferson Rigby b  M Murray 5 6 1 83.33
Freddie Chisnall Not Out  1 3 33.33
Ben White  

Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 2nd XI (Saturday) Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nitya Patel4.002600.006.50
Troy Collins11.0337312.333.36
Luke Coppin11.012839.332.55
Matt Murray9.0216116.001.78
Dev Agrawal5.0014114.002.80

Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 2nd XI (Saturday) Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 14w 8b  
for 6 wickets
23
130		        
Richard Polley b  B White 16 24 2 66.67
Jack Axon ct  G Green b F Chisnall 15 25 2 60.0
Ed Bradbury b  R Thomson 35 43 7 81.40
Ethan Frost lbw  F Chisnall 0 3 0
Matt Murray Not Out  32 58 5 55.17
Sam Collins b  R Thomson 2 15 13.33 1
Ollie Licence b  R Thomson 4 10 1 40.0 2
Troy Collins Not Out  3 11 27.27
Nitya Patel  
Luke Coppin  
Dev Agrawal  

Boxted II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Freddie Chisnall8.2029214.503.48
Ben White4.0021121.005.25
Roy Thomson11.0244314.674.00
Sanjeev Arya8.022800.003.50