Crickets the winner as the first team maintain promotion push

On a day where the first team were nearly hit with last minute withdrawals, and with Penny Parkar being ruled out for the season, it was time for the squad to come together and pull in the right direction…..and that was done brilliantly.

Captain Smirnoff who had made the decision to remove the covers earlier in the day to free up the pitch won another toss and duly chose to put his faith in his bowlers once again to restrict Hitchin 2’s to a chaseable score.

With the usual pairing of Herbie and Dutchy opening up their openers again were making very little progress and the bowlers were well supported by their fielders. But on a docile wicket chances were very hard to come by, despite a bit of early swing meaning the ball was beating the bat on a number of occasions.

Both the openers struck in their opening spells backed up by good catches from Smirnoff and the Milo which removed their opening partners. The number 3 entered and despite playing and missing at many deliveries, then took a liking to Dutchy…bowling changes needed.
This bought the Ashraful express and Sat Nav into the attack, who quickly carried on where the openers started and nullified the scoring with no free balls to punish. This added pressure would surely cause the batsman to play some shots…..and when they did, despite a drop catch from Gibbo, there were two very good if different catches from Milo and then by Herbie. Milo’s at slip and then Herbie had one thumped at him at long on, and despite looking like it was going for 6 the whole way a great catch from Herbie with no room to work with behind him was taken very comfortably. OE’s on top.

Enter Alex ‘Cassie’ Goring, and despite his usual mix of deliveries to begin with then found a really good rhythm which enabled Gibbo to make amends for his earlier drop, and the Dutchy and then the Ashraful Express to take catches. The innings was finished off by Dutchy Herbie and Sat Nav who despite the batsman looking to up their scoring rate were unable to do so due to some fantastic bowling. After a long 53 overs Hitchin 2’s had only made 160. Lets make a chase easy!

Glenroy ‘Baby Girl’ Hylton opened up with Kappa on his first team debut, and begun by timing the pants off of a clip of his hip for a stylish four. Next over Kappa went for a quick single which saw the boundary hitting Baby Girl short of his ground. This bought Gibbo to the crease as the new number 3 an experiment which is sure to work one day….but not today as he was beaten for pace by a short ball from the opener which rushed onto him before lobbing up a catch to mid wicket.

Enter number 4….the Sat Nav, fresh off a ton for his Sunday team immediately looked in good touch, as well as Kappa the other end who off their spinners were finding the boundary at regular intervals. Kappa in particular declining the idea of singles as he was looking for 4 or nothing at one point, and doing this quite comfortably. Soon with both batsman on 39 a race to 50 begun, but then Kappa tucked into their ‘quick’ bowlers once they had taken the new ball. The quicker one of them bowled the further it went, and lets be honest you don’t bowl short to Kappa who duly hooked this chap for a towering 6 which brought up a stylish 50. See us home? Sat Nav at the other end joined him on 50 a couple of overs later along the way punishing all the bad balls. See us home? NO! Next ball he was seen to try and late cut a full delivery which knocked back his off stump. OE’s calypso callapso coming? Enter Milo….the picture of calmness personified. With Milo picking up the singles and 2’s at one end and Kappa continuing to batter the bowling at the other end the OE’s soon reached their target of 161 in little over 30 overs.

A brilliant result which kept the team in contention of promotion, and with Kappa finding some form with an unbeaten 81 the timing could be perfect come the end of the season…..