From the skipper Stephen Oliver

4th team vs Bolney – Saturday 12 June

Catches win matches….normally!

BTW – the scorer (thank you Zuni) is an experienced observer of cricket, said it was exciting – so she must be right!
I decided the most help I could be to the team was to win the toss (again) and inserted the opposition. I then caught a ball and Darren got an LBW from the opposition umpire. Interesting start we thought. Unfortunately the Bolney #2 kept scoring runs. Jonah and Fas did a great job of economy and I took another catch.
Graham Watson then demonstrated he has paid attention in Nathans training sessions. The ball went in the air, good strong call (identifying that Graham would deal with the situation – no one else moved!), followed by determined charge, then stumble/dive and clutch of the red thing.
Having seen this degree of action, I decided that clearly Graham was an all rounder and passed him the ball. 6 overs later: Fas had dived and taken a catch, Danny Poynting had snaffled a big one on the boundary and a nonchalant one handed effort above his head. A good long throw from Danny had also helped run out the Bolney #2 (for 116). End of innings meant I was pretty pleased to be chasing 222.
The run “chase” looked to be misnamed. Bolney found a ball with huge swing, Graham was patient until he buried a 6 then a 4 and missed a straight one in almost successive balls. Fas was uncharacteristically quiet with a long spell of dots. I thought I hit my first ball straight into the Sussex Downs (although as slip clutched the ball, one of us was mistaken). Baseer was looking good (until he used his pads, not his bat) and Danny P went big (very briefly). At 88-6 we were looking rather forlorn. Young Sam Musto showed a straight bat and patience. Supported by his Dad, then Baz and Darren Hick with nifty 20 it is 156-9 and Jonah enters the fray. 66 required off 8 overs.
With 4 overs to go, the run rate is over 10. Then successive boundaries from a wide, byes and Jonah using his bat means 19 scored. Always entertaining to see the opposition having had 20 overs at a 13 year old colt, decide that the way to win is to put everyone on the boundary and let him attack! We end up 12 runs short and Sam Musto unbeaten on 39 runs.
Thank you to the team (including “half match” Garth and Zuni) for making another great game..