Theale & Tilehurst Friendly 2nd XI vs Hungerford 2nd XI

7th June 2009

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Report by Fingers.

On Friday afternoon this game seemed very unlikely to take place; the first reason being that it was still to be arranged and the second being the terrible weather forecast for Sunday.

Still, if you play cricket you have to have some optimism so the fixture was arranged and despite heavy overnight rain the pitch just about passed its morning inspection.  The showers that threatened for much of the afternoon also never materialised.

I won the toss and on a pitch that was drying elected to bowl.  Rags made the first breakthrough when he bowled Willoughby but there were enough bad balls for the Hungerford top order to be scoring at four an over. 

However, a couple of quick wickets from Arsalan and one from Dicko kept us in the game and put the pressure on Watterson to play the captain’s innings and take Hungerford to a competitive total.

Wickets continued to fall until Burbidge arrived at the crease and threatened to blast the ball to all parts.  His confidence must have been increased by being dropped twice as we briefly “caught” the disease suffered by the 2s on Saturday.  Fortunately there was enough incentive for Hammad to take the next chance as the ball was shelled directly at his head.

On the subject of dropping catches and claims people make take these two examples come to mind: Rags mentioned on Saturday night and before the game that he was just about the only person in the 2s not to drop a catch so inevitably he put one down off his own bowling in this game.  Also, within about ten minutes of taking his second catch and announcing that he doesn’t drop anything Lakeish had also put one down.  It’s always good to see traditions being maintained.

Wood then came in and made possibly the longest golden duck in cricket history, due to taking an enormous amount of time to take several guards, before Watterson was the last go trying to lift the scoring rate.

The T&T innings started badly with Rags and Lakeish both going early.  Fortunately Meady and Sunil were able to forge a partnership for the 3rd wicket before Meady went leg before to Gow.  Sunil was in fine form although the club treasurer might not be too delighted at one of his shots which smashed a car windscreen in the car park.

When Hammad and Sunil went in relatively quick succession with 60 still needed it was time for the lower order to show its mettle.  Spike and Arsalan made useful contributions before Dicko and I saw the innings home.  The winning runs coming with a rare six leg byes, two run to fine leg followed by the wicket keeper launching the ball past the bowler’s stumps for four overthrows.


THEALE AND TILEHURST CC SCORECARD
Home Team Theale and Tilehurst Away Team Hungerford
Date of Match 7th June 2009 Played at Theale
Team Result Team
Result Theale and Tilehurst beat Hungerford
1st Innings of Hungerford  
Name How Out Who Bowler 4's 6's Score
1 M Gailbraith ct&b A Ahmed A Ahmed 6 1 35
2 B Willoughby bowled M Mason 1 0 12
3 A Smith ct L Verma M Dixon 4 0 17
4 B McKewitt ct L Verma A Ahmed 0 0 0
5 M Watterson ct B Cooper T Greaves 4 2 50
6 C Harris bowled B Cooper 1 0 12
7 L Franklin ct H Ali B Cooper 0 0 1
8 A Burbidge ct H Ali B Cooper 1 1 15
9 S Wood ct P Mead B Cooper 0 0 0
10 P Steggles bowled T Greaves 0 0 1
11 T Gow not out 0 1 9
Byes 8
Leg Byes 6
Wides 16
No Balls 5
Extras 35
  Wickets 10 Total 187
Bowling O M R W
1 S Kumar 7 1 20 0
2 M Mason 7 1 40 1
3 A Ahmed 4 0 28 2
4 M Dixon 8 0 43 1
5 B Cooper 9 0 29 4
6 T Greaves 4.5 0 23 2
7
8
9
Fall of Wicket
Score Outgoing Bat Stand of
1 41 2 41
2 64 1 23
3 69 4 5
4 81 3 12
5 123 6 42
6 125 7 2
7 153 8 28
8 153 9 0
9 156 10 3
10 187 5 31
2nd Innings of Theale and Tilehurst
Name How Out Who Bowler 4's 6's Score
1 P Mead lbw T Gow 2 0 20
2 M Mason ct M Watterson A Smith 0 0 0
3 L Verma bowled L Franklin 1 0 5
4 S Kumar bowled B Willoughby 8 2 69
5 H Ali lbw A Burbidge 3 0 19
6 J Morris bowled A Smith 2 0 13
7 J White stumped M Watterson B Willoughby 0 0 1
8 A Ahmed ct M Watterson B Willoughby 1 1 12
9 B Cooper not out 3 0 24
10 M Dixon not out 0 0 1
11 T Greaves
Byes 4
Leg Byes 11
Wides 8
No Balls 2
Extras 25
  Wickets 8 Total 189
Bowling O M R W
1 A Smith 8 1 27 2
2 L Franklin 5.4 1 30 1
3 T Gow 5 0 19 1
4 C Harris 3 0 15 0
5 P Steggles 2 0 17 0
6 A Burbidge 6 0 28 1
7 B Willoughby 6 0 27 3
8 B McKewitt 2 0 12 0
Fall of Wicket
Score Outgoing Bat Stand of
1 1 2 1
2 10 3 9
3 71 1 61
4 116 5 45
5 127 4 11
6 128 7 1
7 146 8 18
8 167 6 21
9
10