Westcott v St Lukes - friendly 25/04/09
Report by Robin Ford
On a sunny day in an excellent setting with a lovely batting surface the first friendly of the season started well. Put in to bat by Westcott St Lukes raced to 35 in six overs with Wasif regularly finding the boundary including a nonchalant six. Just when everything seemed to be going like a dream we were all awoken by the dreaded batting collapse. First to go was James for 9, he was followed by Wasif on 27, and then there were four ducks (Dieter, Shoks, Sultan and Nisar) with only Karl Grutzner scoring 5 in between. St Lukes went from 35 for 0 to 43 for 7 in 7 overs. Evan came in to play a dogged captain’s innings scoring 17 and Adam Woodford stuck with him for a time. However, with only 15 overs of the 40 gone the writing was on the wall, so much so the Westcott skipper offered to change the match from 40 overs to a 2-innings game of 20 overs. And so St Lukes finally mustered the grand total of 70 in their first innings.
In reply Westcott faced some tight bowling from Evan (2 wickets for 9) and Jason (1 for 14) but they gradually got on top of the bowling with their middle order batsman, Musgrave scoring 64 not out. Tim Blatt was as tight as ever and Sultan had a couple of good overs for only 7 runs, but the batsmen liked Shoks, taking 33 off his 4 overs for 1 wicket. Adam also had a couple of overs and captured the fifth wicket as Westcott’s first innings ended on 109-5, a lead of 39 runs. Fielding was not bad for the first match of the season and Wasif took the only possible catch.
Although not starting the second innings as good as the first (James and Wasif finding themselves at the same end before James making the long walk to the pavilion), the batting took off when Shoks joined Dieter at the crease. From 38 for 2 with nearly half the 20 overs gone, we had a third wicket partnership of 74 followed by another cavalier stand of 35 between Dieter and Sultan. Shoks had scored 33 (all the runs he conceded when bowling) and Sultan a quick 20. Dieter ended with 67 not out and St Lukes innings closed on 156-4, a lead of 117 and game on.
Westcott’s chase started slowly as they struggled to make headway against the bowling of Jason (1 for 11 off 4 overs) and James. However, the run rate increased, Nisar going for 35 off 4 overs and there were a couple of chances put down in the outfield. But with five overs to go the game was in the balance until Adam got taken apart in his 2 overs and Westcott got over the winning line with a couple of overs to spare.
A very enjoyable game and a good fight back after a terrible collapse in St Lukes first innings. Evan made sure that every player got a chance with either the bat or the ball (which is what pre-season friendlies are all about) and there were some good performances.
Man-of-the-Match – Dieter for his unbeaten 67 getting us back into a game which we did not deserve after an appalling batting performance in the first innings.