Sunday 14 July 2024
SCCC 164-6 (35 overs)
Banstead 165-8 (30.1 overs)
Banstead won by 2 wickets
35 over match
Banstead won the toss
Scorecard
Paul Goss writes:
There was much anticipation as we strolled into Banstead’s lovely ground. Was it the arrival of a new government, the expectation laid upon England’s footballing wannabes or was it the pure joy that we were finally playing cricket again, in this rain affected season? A team mixed with youth and experience were ready for the challenge that was to be presented by our opponents for the day.
Goss senior duly lost the toss and we were inserted. As is normal in this new Cryptic era, there was strength in depth for batting, on paper. Seeckts, on the back of a great knock at West End Esher, joined by Keith, who never scores slowly, velcroed up and strode out. Swashbuckling doesn’t describe the next hour as Boycott and Tavare went about their work. (The bowling was tight as a Cryptic kiwi by common consent, which need not get in the way of the story -ED). Having negotiated a shorter game to allow for football viewing, the scoreboard read 19-0 off 12. Would this save us in the long run?
The short answer is no! Having seen off the openers, in their own words, the pressure was on to score runs so it was hardly surprising that we had the relatively quick dismissals of Seeckts, Keith, Hugs and the returning Andy Rayner. 49-4 after 19 overs, as the diminutive Scottie joined the run out king from West End Esher, Sidwell. An eight over sixty run partnership showed the change bowling was not so challenging and did nothing to stop debate on the sideline about the pace at the start of the innings. Useful support from Rolo and Ed Grindrod saw us work to a total we could think about defending of 164.
We lacked a proper fifth bowler. Goss and Gibb opened the bowling, the latter suffering an unwelcome bout of the yipps. It wasn’t hugely expensive in terms of runs, but no-one on the filed enjoys these rare losses of control and Sam will return a stronger bowler next time. Gossy was a little off his mark at the other end, so after 12 overs Banstead were coasting at 44-0.
Tea was taken after ten overs, not having arrived for the innings break. Scottie and Ed stemmed the flow briefly, so the ball was thrown to Andy Rayner. The plan was to find out where this fifth bowler was going to come from and to see if we could steal a wicket from somewhere to stay in the game. Andy in his second over managed to tempt an ambitious shot out of one of the openers and we were underway.
Banstead moved from 48-0 to 107-4, not a total collapse there hope in the field that something special could happen. The plan; up the tempo of the game, race through the overs, change the bowlers, don’t let the batsmen settle. What was accomplished was utter chaos in the scorebook. Gibb bravely tried another over but struggled for control, Sidwell showed solidarity with his mate by having an over of pies carted. In the chaos, Scottie inadvertently bowled an eighth over that yielded 1-10. Shopping. Tease him as we must, he had a typically good day, 67 runs, an outrageous run out of the non-striker, two wickets and a catch. Wickets fell regularly from the twenty-fifth over and soon Banstead were 7 down. Numbers 10 and 11 were still umpiring. After encouragement from Gossy, Alvin reluctantly went to pad up, returning immediately when the eighth wicket fell with scores level. Tighter than it might have been but Banstead, but they had done enough earlier in their innings.
A good win for the opposition and we retired to the bar to discuss what went wrong. I will leave you, the reader, to make your own mind up. (Obviously our captaincy – ED)