Scorecard

Belhus v Ongar Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI on Sat 04 Jul 2009 at 1.00pm
Match was Drawn

Match report Ongar's first ever trip to The Green in North Stifford, the home of SNEL new boys Belhus was certainly to prove an interesting experience. Ongar skipper Rakesh elected to have first use of a rock hard track, with the obvious thought that nothing less than 200 would do and probably anything around 250 might still not be sufficient.

Unfortunately nothing changes as far as Ongars batting is concerned, batters may get shuffled up and down the pack but this still results in Ongar losing wickets right from the off.

This week it was the turn of Sam Adders and Joe to open up. Sam(0) was caught at mid wicket with the score on 1. Joe(3) and Rakesh(3) soon followed both caught behind off the bowling of Terry. At the fall of Jamie's wicket, Ongar were deep in trouble at 39-4 in the 22nd over. Jas joined Stick at the crease and the pair began the job of slowly trying to rebuild the innings. The pair managed to scrape together 51 before Stick(41) was caught at cover after 2 hours at the crease. 38 overs had already been bowled and it was now time for Blake and then Dan Shutts to try and give the innings much need impetus, but unfortunately this wasnt to be. Blake(18) was caught trying to get on with it, quickly followed by Dan(4) who was also caught trying to get on with things. With overs running out it was becoming clear that Ongar were not going to be able to post anywhere near a competitive total. Jas(42) departed with the score on 143 in the 50th over. It was soon crunch time for the Ongar skipper, should he declare with 155 on the board after 52 overs and face certain defeat or should he bat on, but with only 2 wickets remaining face the real prospect of tossing 4 points away only to then be bowled out shortly afterwards. It was an unenviable position and fortunately for the rest of us it was someone elses call! Rakesh chose to bat on and in the end his decision was vindicated, between Kev(13) too tall Paul(33) on his first eleven return and the old warhorse Adders (20 no) making his umpteenth comeback, Ongar were finally bowled out in the 64th over with 211 on the board.

After tea. Belhus faced the difficult task of scoring the required 212 to win from only 36 overs. Blake was making their problem even more difficult, although unable to make a breakthrough he only conceded 9 runs from his first 7 overs. Jamie was his opening partner this week, with Madcock choosing to play in the twose. Jamie was to have first success having opener Huckstepp caught by Dan Shutts at mid wicket with the score on 31. However 43 runs were conceded from his first spell of 8 overs. Dan went for 18 runs in his only over and was quickly replaced by Rakesh who conceded 36 runs in his 5 overs. Belhus had required 150 from their final 20 overs with 9 wickets in hand and a prospect of a tight finish was always on the cards, with Belhus sitting 3rd in the table
they were going to do or die, that was for sure. Blake bowled unchanged for 18 overs finishing with figures of 3-73 and Jamie was to return to bowl the last 4 overs from the other end. So it came down to the final over of Jamie's with Belhus requiring 15 runs for victory. Unfortunately he started with a wide and the next 4 balls conceded 2,4,2,2. 4 runs to win with 2 balls to go and Belhus were now hot favourites. But Jamie bowled straight and true and Bayford(16) was bowled with the pnultimate ball of the match. Could Belhus no. 7 obtain hero status and hit the 4 runs to win? Rakesh took his time trying to get his 9 boundary riders in the correct positions, finally deciding to swap Jas with Blake at third man and put Blake at deep extra cover. And yes you've guessed
it the ball made its way down to third man off a thickish outside edge but Jas made no mistake collecting the ball and returning to Kev with 2 runs only scored. So Belhus were to fall an agonising 2 runs short of victory. It was real heart in the mouth stuff and a really thrilling finish to a game of cricket which would have otherwise been a parade had Ongar declared on 155. And I'm sure if there were any neutrals watching they would have appreciated it. At the end of the day Ongar had been soundly out played but thanks to the rules of the game were still able to cling on to a draw, thus avoiding 4 defeats on the spin. In conclusion a far from satisfactory performance from Ongar with the bat, although the skipper will be pleased that we at least battled on, and from
Belhus's point of view they will feel justifiably upset that they werent able to collect the full quota of points their dominance truly deserved.

Boundary

Ongar Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI Batting
211 for 10
Player Name RunsCatchesStumpingsRun outs
Sam Adcock Caught  0
Joe Curtis Caught  3
David Coles Caught  41
Rakesh Bagga Caught  3 1
Jamie Abbott Bowled  5
Jas Chaggar Caught  42
Blake Hall Caught  18 1
Daniel Shuttleworth Caught  4 1
Kevin Pike Lbw  13
Paul Stolworthy Bowled  33 1
Steve Adcock Not Out  20

Belhus Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Belhus Batting
210 for 5
Player name Runs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Ongar Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Blake Hall18.0273324.334.06
Jamie Abbott12.0075237.506.25
Daniel Shuttleworth1.001800.0018.00
Rakesh Bagga5.003600.007.20

  • Umpire :
  • Scorer :
    Geoff 'The Biro' Page
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