Scorecard

Wivenhoe II v Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 1st XI (Saturday) on Sat 20 Jul 2024 at 1pm
Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Won By 4 wickets

Match report What threatened to become a chastising trip to the other side of the city, ended up being one of the best performances of our season so far, as the first Xi came away from Wivenhoe with 18 points and their tails up heading into cricket week.

With the sun beaming down and barely a cloud in the sky, it finally looked as though it would be a day for Eight Ash Green to bat first. However, that required skipper Joe Young to win the toss, a task he failed to accomplish. Wivenhoe, naturally, stuck the Green into field, but nevertheless the away side took to the field feeling confident, buoyed by the sight of a returning Amila charging in from the pavilion end. Amila and JP were handed the new rock and were charged with making early inroads. At 18/0 from 7 overs, it would be fair to think that the Green were on top. Joe, in an effort to keep his bowlers fresh given the mercury reached 28 for the first time this season, brought JP off and turned to Steve Nunn to continue to keep the Wivenhoe openers at bay. Steve’s first ball was a long-hop that was smoked back in his direction. Having managed to get half a hand to it to save 4 runs (but in the process sacrificing the feeling in half of his right hand), Steve struggled for grip in his delivery stride during the 14 balls he bowled, going for 34 runs. The Wivenhoe openers had the bit between their teeth, motoring along and scoring 88 runs between overs 7 and 15. The double drinks break agreed at the beginning of play turned out to be just what the Green required, using those few minutes to regroup and refocus.

Henry Warner and Joe began to slow the run rate down, before dismissing both openers in the space of 11 balls, with Deepak taking a sharp chance off of Henry’s bowling to remove the dangerous Doke, and Joe snaffling a caught and bowled which left Handscombe flat on his back half-way down the track. Stuart Hammond came straight into the attack to remove Stacey cheaply, trapping him LBW in a decision which can probably be described as “out, but generous” given it was the first real shout the team had gone up for. The Green continued to turn the tide, with JP getting his name in the book having had Fields caught at short mid-wicket, and at the second drinks break we had wrestled back momentum to have Wivenhoe 162/4, a mini-session of 56/4.

As expected, the Wivenhoe batters came out for the final 15 overs and looked to increase the scoring rate once again. Alex Hammond seemed as though he was unable to miss the stumps with his throws at Rectory Road, catching Burnett just short of his ground as the Wivenhoe left hander looked to start going big. Wivenhoe continued to go at around 6 an over for this final session, which included Sparling lofting Joe into the allotments for a gargantuan maximum. One so big, in fact, the captain had to run off the field in the middle of his own over to retrieve a replacement ball, and came back with two in case Sparling fancied going again! The final stages of the innings saw Amila bring Farrow’s gritty knock to an end with a characteristically enthusiastic LBW appeal, and Ollie Stovell acrobatically dropping the ball over the boundary for 4 having misjudged the strength of the breeze the ball was sailing on. Wicket Keeper Rob Lewis, who had spent the majority of the day under the lid, was still alert enough to save 4 overthrows from a wild Amila shy at the stumps, despite having been put through the ringer for 45 overs and not having a sniff of a chance at another dismissal. The Green managed to restrict Wivenhoe to 255/6 from their 45 overs, a great effort in the early heat.

After a very well-received and highly appreciated tea put on by Wivenhoe, openers Stuart and Steve came out to the middle to begin our pursuit of a high but chaseable 256. After a watchful start, Steve’s day was capped off by an absolutely beauty from Sparling, the ball keeping low and jagging back in from well outside off stump to clean him up. Joe raced into the middle (after taking all the time in the world to get his gloves and helmet on, of course) to join Stuart, and the majority of their early conversations focussed on building a platform for our middle order to tee off from later in the innings, with a long-term aim of leaving around 100 from the last 15 overs. Stuart set about his business, scoring freely early on in the innings to put the Wivenhoe bowlers under pressure and to keep the Green ticking along at the rate required to get us to our mini target. Joe’s innings featured the now expected idiosyncrasies which simultaneously frustrate the opposition and get him into the flow of things, rotating the strike regularly and sweating on anything loose. At the first drinks break the Green were 67/1, having taken a different approach to the Wivenhoe openers, but one that we believed would get us over the line.

The next 15 overs followed a very similar pattern, with bad balls being punished, good balls being respected and the strike constantly changing hands. Stuart continued to crash the ball to the boundary whenever the chance arose, and Joe took advantage of a wandering cow corner to slog sweep over his head off of the left arm off spinner. Both batters passed their half centuries before Stuart fell a couple of balls before the final drinks break for a very well made 63, trying to take the attack to a tiring Wivenhoe bowling line, and the 133 run stand in which each batter scored 60 was brought to an end. This meant that the Green were 148/2 at the final drinks break, with 108 runs to score from the final 90 balls.

Joe followed Stuart to the pavilion a few overs later in the pursuit of quick runs for 68, and with 88 still needed, Amila (33) and Ollie (17) set about chasing them down. A partnership of 37 from 34 balls saw them continue to chip away at target, although I’m sure both batters will be the first to admit they did not reach their usual levels of brutal fluency during their stint in the middle. Amila fell with the equation at 51 from 38, and the game becoming increasingly tense. Daryl Sleeman skipped down the wicket second ball and deposited the Wivenhoe spinner over wide long-on for a towering six to calm Eight Ash Green nerves, and from then on looked to have taken the game by the scruff of the neck. Ollie fell and Alex followed, but Daryl continued to plunder, putting the Wivenhoe fielders under pressure with his running between wickets, and dispatching the ball into the sight screen in a dominant display of middle-order hitting. The run chase was completed by Deepak with 9 balls to spare, slapping the ball through extra cover for a boundary to bring up our fourth win of the season.

A great win for the Green in tough circumstances, it is never straightforward to chase down 250, but we were able to overcome the tough periods to come away with the result we deserved. The boys enjoyed dissecting an impressive team performance in the Wivenhoe sun with a few beers after the game, but our attention now turns to Brockley at home on Saturday, when we will roll out another strong 11 in the hope of continuing to climb up the table despite the weather washing out 6 games of our season already. If you have made it this far, firstly, thanks for reading! Secondly, see you at race night next week, and finally… up the Green!

Wivenhoe II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 3w 8b 2lb 
for 6 wickets
15
255 (45.0 overs)		     
James Handscombe ct  J Young b J Young 54 57 6 1 94.74
Yashraj Doke ct  D Rajpal b H Warner 63 57 10 110.53
Robert Stacey lbw  S Hammond 7 14 1 50.0
Harry Burnett run out  (A Hammond) 33 39 5 84.62
Liam Fields ct  J Young b J Purser 6 12 50.0
Paul Farrow lbw  A Peiris 41 48 5 85.42
James Sparling Not Out  23 29 1 1 79.31
Paul Wilson Not Out  13 16 1 81.25
Jamie Barry  
Aqeel Sayed  
Lewis Cooper  

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

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Amila Peiris9.0132132.003.56
Jonathan Purser6.0124124.004.00
Steve Nunn2.003400.0017.00
Henry Warner9.0152152.005.78
Joe Young9.0064164.007.11
Stuart Hammond8.0122122.002.75
Daryl Sleeman2.001700.008.50

Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 1st XI (Saturday) Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 5w 7b 11lb 
for 6 wickets
27
256		        
Steve Nunn b  J Sparling 5 9 1 55.56
Stuart Hammond ct  A Sayed b J Barry 63 82 8 76.83
Joe Young ct  J Sparling b P Wilson 68 97 5 70.10 2
Amila Peiris b  H Burnett 33 35 3 94.29
Ollie Stovell b  A Sayed 17 20 1 85.00
Daryl Sleeman Not Out  28 13 2 2 215.38
Alex Hammond b  A Sayed 7 7 1 100
Deepak Rajpal Not Out  8 2 2 400 1
Jonathan Purser  
Rob Lewis  
Henry Warner  

Wivenhoe II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Aqeel Sayed5.3043221.507.82
James Sparling4.0015115.003.75
Lewis Cooper9.013700.004.11
Liam Fields5.003000.006.00
Harry Burnett8.0148148.006.00
Paul Wilson6.0039139.006.50
Jamie Barry6.0026126.004.33