2nd XI HSBC CC vs Broadstairs CC Saturday 28thJuly 2018

Second XI lose despite valiant effort.

Andy lost a vital toss on Saturday and Broadstairs were asked to field. Despite the very warm weather we also had extremely strong winds to deal with.

Although we didn’t look like taking a wicket in the early overs, the run rate was kept quite low. It wasn’t until the 20^th over when Farjad Yasir picked up the first wicket courtesy of yet another Lewis Hewitt catch. We had to wait a long time for the next wicket and we were our own worst enemy, a couple of missed stumping opportunities and 3 or 4 drop catches made for a tough afternoon.

Joe McCaffrey and Ashley Ellison bowled well with no luck but Callum McCormick picked up the second wicket again caught by Lewis Hewitt and the number 3 had gone for 86. Luke Palmer then picked up the opening bat just after his century, Bradley Ellison making up for his earlier drop and taking a good low catch on the mid-wicket boundary. Luke then collected his second wicket, clean bowling the dangerous Harry Freeman but that was all we could muster and HSBC had set us 279 to win!

After a typically bleak tea that was slightly saved by the introduction of some fries, Nathan Fox walked out with a new opening partner Farjad Yasir. We were well in front of the run rate, both youngsters played their shots and were sensible enough to rotate the strike. Farjad timing his shots to perfection and hitting boundaries with ease when he wanted to. Natty was bowled for 13 and Lewis entered at 3 with his usual swashbuckling style, when you live by the sword you also die by the sword and he was caught on the boundary for 16.

Archie looked good and built a nice partnership with Farj until he succumbed, caught at mid wicket. Farj (67) brought up a very well made 50, he was keeping us in the game, but he was unfortunately caught at deep mid on taking the bowler on. Callum (4) was out to a magnificent catch at short third man, Luke found square leg with a pull shot (8), Brad Caught and bowled first ball. This ripped the middle order apart, it was left to Andy and Tom to get what they could from the game.

Andy fell for 23, trying to find a boundary, Tom (35*) and Joe (10*) saw us up to a respectable 233.

A disappointing day and we certainly rued our missed opportunities in the field and maybe with more application batting we could have got closer.

With results going our way, we’re still in the mix but really need to take the maximum 90 points left remaining if we’re to stand a chance or promotion.

This week MoM goes to Farjad for his well-made 67, well played Farj

Scorecard