3rd XI - A missed opportunity for the 3rds

We arrived at a sunny and dry Old Grammarian's sports ground optimistic and with a strong side. (Bolstered by the return of a fit Paul Wolstenholme and the return of ex 1st team captain Tim Burt).

Horton won the toss and put OG's into bat.

Skipper Kev and Dylan Martin opened the bowling and immediately set about the opposition. Dylan took the opening scalp with the help of a sharp catch in the slips by Ish. 7-1. Kev got the second wicket at 41 after a terrific catch by James Dadge.

The fielding and bowling was much better this week and good spells from James Dadge 0-22 and Zahid Mirza 2-34 kept the pressure on OG's in the middle of the innings with them being 87-4 at drinks. We then polished off the tail impressively taking the last 6 wickets for 62 runs. This was largely down to super spells of bowling from our two young debutants Rujul Singh 6-1-22-3 and Mitchell Boffin 5.2-0-22-3.
Both lads bowled really well and could've finished with even better figures if luck had gone their way.
I was really pleased with the effort in the field , some good catches taken and the the solid Tim back behind the stumps helping all the bowlers.

We finally bowled them out for a total of 149 off 38 overs.

Confidence was high at tea that we could make this total with the the wealth of batting at our disposal.

However things didn't quite go as planned. Paul Wolstenholme out 2nd ball 0-1, Mike McDonnell next to go 7-2, Mark Glover also out cheaply 14-3. The middle order all got off to good starts before getting out due to some steady bowling and a deteriorating pitch where the bounce was becoming erratic. Rujul looked good for his 18 runs, Tim looked like he'd never been away before falling to a debateable LBW decision for 16. Zahid was just getting going when he picked out the one fielder on the leg side boundary also for 16. Ishtaq Hussain then batted well for his 24 before falling LBW also.

The lower order were unable to support Ish for long and we succumbed to the bowling and the pitch for 96 all out in 39 overs.

Credit must be given to OG's bowlers especially Matthew Ward who finished with figures of 4-15 and Sameer Mazumdar 1-0 off his 5 overs at the start of the innings.

We probably can say that we gave the opposition an almighty scare being second in the table before the game and that on another day we would've knocked the runs off comfortably.

Let's see if we can get a win in our next game at home to Weldon on Saturday 15th June.

Result: win for OG's by 53 runs OG's 26 points. Horton 5 points.

Kevin Taylor 3rd Team Captain