Harpsden v Young Lions

Sun 7th June 2009

Harpsden’s Sunday side managed to find a sufficiently long break in the weekend rain to fit a 40 over game in against the Young Lions team from West London. On the previous two meetings the Lions had proved too strong for the hosts so Club Capain Andy Norton was keen to prevent three defeats in a row. Lions batted first and were quickly in trouble on the sticky wicket. Captain, Rajiv, top edged an easy catch off Greenwood and when Nismal went lbw off Balaji for the top score of 22 it was obvious that Lions were not going to post a high score. Alfred Cary bowled some excellent off spin taking three wickets and Toby Stevens mopped up the tail with 3 wickets in 2.2 overs. Although the target of 107 looked easy enough the Harpsden batsmen were taking nothing for granted on this very difficult wicket and this was proved true when Neil Sweet uncharacteristically ‘ducked’ and Harpsden struggled to 10 off the first six overs. However Tom Hancock soon got to grips with the track and stroked the ball around with ease, his confidence growing every over. Andy Norton joined in with some solid hitting and with the weather worsening the two accelerated the scoring. Harpsden reached the total having used only half the allotted overs to win by 8 wickets.

Young Lions
Nayman c Run out 14
Rajiv c Balaji b Greenwood 4
Nismal c LBW b Balaji 22
Yashwin c St Birkettj b Cary 4
Justin b Cary 8
Shaan b Balaji 11
Mihire b Cary 0
Manoj c Norton b Stevens 2
Viram c Hodgkiss b Stevens 13
Anand c Sweet b Stevens 1
Kavit Not out 3
extras 25
TOTAL 107
Best bowling T. Stevens 3 for 7

Harpsden
N Sweet c Mayan b Rajiv 0
A Birkettc&b b Manoj 11
T Hancock Not out 65
A Norton Not out 28


extras 6
TOTAL 110

Best bowling Rajiv 1 for 23