Holton & Wheatley vs Islip

Sunday 5 June 2011

Original Report by John Kelly

Holton Win Exciting Last Wicket Encounter

Holton and Wheatley’s first home game of 2011 was against Islip and as usual it was an entertaining and closely contested match.

Guy lost the toss and the Islip skipper elected to bat, which I heard him immediately regret to his players. The Wheatley campus pitch looked great with a great outfield except for the sporadic rabbit holes.

Kiran returned to the bowling attack opening from the pavilion end with me returning to the uphill slog from the far end. Islip’s very accomplished bat JK and his partnering opener looked steady from the start. However Kiran and I limited their runs in the first spell with some decent bowling. We struggled to make any dent in the batting order however, with Guy telling the bowlers not to try too hard getting Carter out, though he was trying his best to tease an outside edge to Simon S throughout his innings. Both batsman were doing well and faced up to the new threat of Mahesh and Hawkins. The latter eventually getting the breakthrough needed. Graham bamboozled JK, the ball glancing his trailing leg prompting a big LBW shout: 47 for 1. Mahesh laboured away from the far end eventually removing Carter LBW for 18 runs and then JP caught by Guy off an aerial straight drive. A cameo appearance from young Robin Taylor was built up to be the bowling high point of the day following his scorching tour record. However he decided against bowling another over following an expensive short spell.  Not the last we’ll be seeing of him I’m sure!

Appleton and Brian Deely both proved equally tough batsmen to remove, the latter playing a few straight drives that frustrated the bowlers. Guy eventually removing Appleton for 24 runs. Binoy bowled a tough spell in wet and slippy conditions and I came back onto bowl after Mahesh had completed his great spell of 8 overs (for 26 runs 2 wickets and 1 maiden). I managed to bowl Brian Deely and then Epton in an over before Binoy sent Colbrook back to the pavilion to let us at the tail enders.

Although we’d bowled fairly tidily throughout the innings, Islip’s resistance had brought them to a decent total. Kiran returned to the attack taking Currie’s wicket and Guy bowled Nelson out for one of his two wickets towards the end of the Islip innings. The 40 overs ended with Islip getting 168 for 9 wickets.

 

After a fantastic Graham Hawkins Tea, he and Ash opened the batting for Holton and Wheatley. Ash had an unfortunate start and needs some luck to get his season started!  Graham and Simon needed to stick for a while and did so keeping the score ticking slowly but surely. Unfortuntely the need for runs pushed Graham into a speculative run that wasn’t there and found himself run out after a slip on the damp wicket. Cyriac’s fielding debut had been a good one, looking sharp throughout the Islip innings, and we hoped for a similar batting debut. However the tricky wicket and weather caused him to struggle and he was out soon after leaving the pavilion.

A victory was starting to look very unlikely at 14 for 3. However we had the IPL middle order still to come and Binoy stepped out looking relaxed with Simon trying to anchor the innings.  Both did well halting the collapse and staging a comeback. Simon did what he could to stabilise the innings before being caught off Epton for 17. Binoy got himself comfortable and set about scoring some boundaries, including a six that cleared the scorer’s shed. Kiran joined Binoy for a while scoring 13 followed by Robin who succumbed to Epton’s bowling. Mahesh stepped out and forged a great partnership with Binoy, the pair edging us towards becoming favourites to win the match. There was hint that Mahesh may have edged something else that went straight to Islip hands but the umpire was unconvinced and most of the Islip players respected the decision however convinced they were, and continued in the good spirit of what was a competitive match.

During the last 10 overs it all became very tense, the best ending to a H&WCC game so far this season. When Mahesh was caught off JP’s bowling for a valuable 26 runs, he and Binoy had pushed the score close to our target of 169. I went out too intent on scoring runs and managed a four before allowing the skipper to come out and take a bit of glory. Guy let Binoy score the runs that put us within touching distance in the second from last over, but Islip were also one wicket from victory. Both batsmen held their nerve to score the winning runs off Butler. Binoy made 75 runs which undoubtedly turned a loss into a great victory!