A tough day at the office!

A slightly changed Horton Sunday XI took the field against a Mears Ashby side that it turned out, also included a couple of late additions from the ONs in order that they could field 11 players on the day. Our side featured three sets of father & son, not for the first time this season either!

We chatted through our plans and decided that bowling first would be a good option so we could assess what sort of run chase we would need. We also reckoned on it still being really hot later in the afternoon and so figured bowling and fielding would be hard work whenever it happened. Little did we know...

James Dadge and George Pitt opened the bowling on a good looking wicket. Things were kept tight in the opening overs with James picking up a wicket in the 5th over, LBW for 5 which was good reward for a probing and pacy spell. At the first 6 over break the score was 29-1 and with the temperature soaring, wicket playing well and a fast outfield, we knew we were in for a long afternoon. It was time for a change with Finn taking over from George and some spin from Vignesh in place of James after an excellent opening spell of 1-5 from 4 overs. Slowly the batsmen started to accelerate and put us under pressure in the field so we needed to work really hard to try and keep runs down. Vignesh bowled a good line and took a wicket in his 4th and 5th overs. Dylan took a wicket in his first over too and so we were hopeful of getting through them but this then brought together a former ONs 1st team batsman and a current ONs 3rd team youngster. Both batsmen timed the ball beautifully from the start and were very efficient in punishing anything off line or under/over pitched. We became a little ragged at times in the heat with the push firmly on from batsmen enjoying the true nature of the wicket. Both batsmen retired after reaching 50 at a good pace and there had been no let up for any bowler. Some more late hitting from batsmen given license to hit out with a good score already on the board pushed the score up to 260 off the 36 overs and it was a tired and hot Horton team that left the field for a well earned rest and tea. On the whole we had stuck to our task well but some of our bowling and fielding could have been better when the pressure was on against quality batsmen.

Adam Willis was pencilled in to open the batting and with no-one else rushing to open, it was left to skipper Alan to join him. Mears Ashby opened with spin at each end and kept it tight with the score 9-0 off 5 overs. The bowling was accurate but we knew we needed to push on a bit and not get bogged down. Unfortunately Adam was LBW in the 6th over having already received a sporting reprieve from the opposition when initially given out caught behind when the ball had actually brushed his pad. This brought Finn to the crease and we planned to try and keep the scoreboard ticking over by ensuring any loose balls were punished. We were able to pick up the scoring through both hard running and also more aggressive shots and enjoyed a partnership of around 70 in 12-13 overs before Alan retired on 50. Another maiden 50 for Horton from the Sunday team... Finn carried on and batted well with Dylan in a further partnership of 30 before being bowled for a hard fought 33. Dylan picked up the pace, hitting a total of five 4s and one six as well as hitting fielders with hard hit shots before he was out caught for 37. Vignesh and Tinu finished off the innings undefeated and we finished up well short on 155-3.

In hindsight we probably should have batted first but I was pleased that we we hadn't embarrassed ourselves and we consoled ourselves with the knowledge that if we'd bowled and fielded a bit better and not come up against two higher quality batsmen, the game could have been a lot closer.

On to next week with more lessons learnt when we're away at West Haddon to play Haddon Cricket Club.