Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs Waltham St Lawrence 20th August 2005

Report by Fingers

This was a crucial game for T&T, our last two games had been defeats and we needed to get a win if we were to maintain our second position and push for promotion.

Things started well with Cat winning the toss and choosing to field; it was also apparent that despite the rain that had been around on Friday the pitch had quite a bit of pace and bounce. There was an early chance but Lemmy put down Van Zyl off his own bowling in the first over, it didn't seem like the first wicket would be long in coming with both Van Zyl and Kiani playing adventurously but it didn't until the 16th over when Doc caught and bowled Kiani. Van Zyl soon followed bowled by AJ in his first over which brought Johnson and Gearing, the two main batters for WSL, together at the crease.

They both batted well before Gearing ran straight past Fingers' second ball to be stumped. The scoring was fairly fluent but with one end open wickets were also starting to fall.

WSL reached 186-5 which with overs left suggested a total well in excess of 200. It wasn't to be though as not for the first time the lower order for WSL went in rapid succession, three of the last four batters getting first ballers. Huntley and Wood decided to give catching practice to Meady at long on and Lemmy came back to pick up three wickets with Arif the last to go palpably lbw.

Whilst we've won quite a few games batting second this season we haven't been the most convincing of chasers this season. When Meady was the second out with the score on 22 it again looked like we might make it hard work for ourselves. Fortunately a determined Jamil made his first fifty of the season in a partnership of 111 with Cat.

Cat hadn't been at his most fluent in the first half of his innings but once past 50 he probably played as well as he has all season. There were 16 fours and 1 six in his innings and once Jamil was dismissed Dopey proved a more than useful ally to Cat. Cat went past three figures towards the end and fittingly it was he that hit the winning runs to give T&T victory by 7 wickets with the best part of 10 overs to spare.

With Shinfield losing to Warfield it means that the chasers remain hard on our heals and may mean that come the final day of the season both teams will have something to play for, both in terms of the title and looking over their shoulders.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Theale and Tilehurst						Away Team		Waltham St Lawrence
Date of Match		20th August 2005						Played at		Theale

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		Theale and Tilehurst							beat	WSL

1st Innings of		Waltham St Lawrence												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	A Van Zyl	bowled						A Johnson				24	1
2	Z Kiani	ct & b						Neill Halliday				21	2
3	G Johnson	ct			P Jenkins			C Lemm				59	3
4	P Gearing	st			P Jenkins			B Cooper				35	4
5	R Hobson	ct			Neill Halliday			B Cooper				10	5
6	T Arif	ct			P Mead			B Cooper				9	6
7	C England	bowled						C Lemm				7	7
8	A Huntley	ct			P Mead			B Cooper				0	8
9	S Wood	ct			P Mead			B Cooper				0	9
10	S Christodolou	not out										1	10
11	R Arif	lbw						C Lemm				0	11
							Byes	6					12
							Leg Byes	10					13
							Wides	4					14
							No Balls	3					15
									Extras			23	16
													17
							Wickets	10	Total			189	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	C Lemm		10	3	27	3							21
2	Neill Halliday		11	1	31	1							22
3	A Johnson		8	0	36	1							23
4	M Jamil		6	0	36	0							24
5	B Cooper		8	0	47	5							25
6													26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	52	2				52							32
2	56	1				4							33
3	110	4				54							34
4	128	5				18							35
5	154	6				26							36
6	186	3				32							37
7	186	8				0							38
8	187	9				1							39
9	192	7				5							40
10	192	11				0							41
													42
													43
													44
													45
2nd Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	C Coldman	bowled						P Gearing				13	1
2	P Stephens	not out										106	2
3	P Mead	lbw						P Gearing				0	3
4	M Jamil	lbw						P Gearing				56	4
5	D Robertson	not out										12	5
6	T Sethi	DNB											6
7	A Johnson	DNB											7
8	B Cooper	DNB											8
9	C Lemm	DNB											9
10	Neill Halliday	DNB											10
11	P Jenkins	DNB											11
							Byes	2					12
							Leg Byes	2					13
							Wides	0					14
							No Balls	3					15
									Extras			7	16
													17
							Wickets	3	Total			194	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	P Gearing		11	2	51	3							21
2	A Huntley		9	0	39	0							22
3	C England		7	0	34	0							23
4	R Arif		2	0	16	0							24
5	A Van Zyl		7	0	35	0							25
6	T Arif		1	0	5	0							26
7	S Wood		0.4	0	12	0							27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	16	1				16							32
2	22	3				6							33
3	133	4				111							34
4													35
5													36
6													37
7													38
8													39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45