Last Pair Salvage Valuable Points

The 1s travelled to Berkhamsted this past weekend for a top-of-the table clash in the last of the current batch of limited over matches. With the sun high in the sky and only a few passing clouds, the winner of the toss would obviously bat first despite the green tinge to what otherwise looked like a true wicket.

As expected, the only thing surer than a win the above scenario is that Nav would lose the toss, opting this week to call “heads“ and ignoring the fact that ‘tails never fails’.

The first shock of the day came when skipper Nav asked Jimmy, yes Jimmy Heavey to open the bowling. Thankfully the shock & confusion wasn’t confined to our own players as the two Berkhamsted openers seemed suitably hesitant in facing his leg-spin to sneak 6 overs through for just 23 runs.

This opening spell was a sign of what was to come as the pitch offered very little assistance to any seamer and it was the spinners who were hardest to work around. The two Berkhamsted openers built a platform for an attack later in the innings, Joyce (75) & Foster (95) were cautious early on but kept rotating the strike and managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

It wasn’t until Joyce skipped down to Nav and missed the ball, that Scutt was able to complete the stumping and gain that first point of the day. It was still tough going after this and going into the final 10 overs, Berko were well place at 190-1, but brilliant spells from Dom Goring (2-45) & Charlie Busby (2-43) restricted the Berko innings to a competitive 241-6.

It was over to our own openers who looked to build their own platform for the chase, this was broken in the thirs over as Jimmy had his leg-stump removed via a Yorker. Her was followed quickly to the pavilion by the returning Shaun Gomes who mistimed a pull shot which lobbed back to the bowler, 9-2 not the ideal site for OEs.

Sean Price & Charlie Scutt looked to settle things down and put the pressure back on the Berko bowlers but this was ended when Sean was dismissed LBW for 20. Like London buses, 1 brings 2 as Scutt feathered one behind to leave the 1s needing a rebuilding job by the lower middle order. Unfortunately, skipper Nav and last week’s hero Tush fell to good catches as Berko snaffled any chance that came their way. Dom came in and caressed 3 boundaries through the covers before falling LBW and Buzzer also played onto his stumps to leave us 92-9. A rare drubbing was on the cards but Dutch & Zinni showed great spirit and fight to claim every point possible.
The final pair put on 102, a mix of good defence, excellent running and some quite brilliant power-hitting frustrated the Berko bowlers.

The highlight of Dutch’s innings came when he launched Klosterman for 3 consecutive sixes to end with 76* from 53 balls. His partner in crime Zinni, finished with 21 in his first bat for the 1s, he showed great temperament, excellent shot selection and good awareness before being dismissed by a peach of a delivery.

The last pair picked up 6 batting points, how important could they be at the end of the season?

Next week the 1s host Cockfosters in a local derby in the first of the timed games.

Scorecard