The pitch again looked green and conditions were beautiful. Beechwood lost the toss and were eventually asked to field after some deliberation between Captain Quinn and his team. This was a 40 over match.
Rogers and Woodward opened the bowling and it was soon clear that there was some seam movement for the bowlers. Rogers started off bowling superbly, producing two maidens, but having been hit for two boundaries in his third over Captain Woodward decided to ring the changes and replaced him with Valentine.
Woodward himself was bowling beautifully and produced a cracking yorker to remove Cunningham LBW. Rogers then replaced Woodward at the other end and delivered one of the best slower balls I have seen for a long time to remove Ashbury; Valentine taking a great catch at second slip despite Freeman's best efforts to get in the way. Sheen were under the cosh, losing early wickets and struggling to score runs off of some excellent bowling. Things then got worse as Valentine got rid of the left handed Bradbury LBW to a delightful in swinger and Rogers returned the compliment by taking a stunning catch at second slip to get rid of Creeson.
Cooksley replaced Rogers and joined in the act having Perkins caught by Freeman at short cover. Sheen had gone from 23 without loss to 45 for 5. Savory replaced Valentine and produced some lovely flight to remove Gibbons caught and bowled. McCrea replaced Cooksley who had bowled one of his best spells at a time when the batsmen were looking to accelerate. |
All of a sudden Quinn who had opened the innings and is normally a very aggressive batsman went into his shell as McCrea reeled off four maidens, the batsman refusing a run on at least four occasions before the ball had reached him. The other batsman Benson decided to take action and began striking boundaries at will. He had struck a brisk 20 went he attempted another big hit off Savory and Hill took a great catch in the deep. Quinn finally shook himself out of his lethargy and Sheen managed to finish on 121 for 7 off their allotted overs.
Freeman and Rogers opened the batting for Beechwood and started steadily knowing they only need three an over. Rogers was soon undone trying to pull Brennan off the front foot and Benson took a comfortable catch at mid wicket. Warner joined Freeman and they continued to keep up with the required run rate. Warner hit Gibbons for six and he replied by hitting Warner on the arm with a bouncer that climbed quite sharply and Warner in turn hit a full toss from Gibbons two balls later for four. Beechwood were now well in control, but with less than fifty runs needed Warner tried to dispatch a full toss from Benson and was caught at mid off by Perkins.
Valentine was next up and stroked the ball around well before he was caught by Ashbury at slip off Gibbons' leg spin. Hill joined Freeman who completed another fine half century, and Freeman had the final word hitting the winning runs with another boundary. Beechwood won by 7 wickets with 7.1 overs remaining. A great victory that came about as a result of a superb fielding performance that contained at least 2 entries for 'Catch of the Season'.
Team: Cooksley, Freeman, Hill, McCrea, Morton, Robinson, Rogers, Savory, Valentine, Warner, Woodward (c)
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