3s vs Old Roan

The Heath’s 3rd XI turned up to play Old Roan 1st XI, our opponents were on a hot streak having won their previous 5 games. Skipper Dave Hughes won the toss and decided to bat first on the hottest day of the year so far. It wasn’t a great start as M&M edged to slip for a duck in the 2nd over, before Amit restored measures with a brisk 26 hitting four 4’s and a huge 6 over mid wicket. In came the skipper at 41 for 2, and out went the skipper for a first ball duck or second ball duck depending on which scorer you use, but as Teresa is always right it’s a ‘Golden’. Hari hit two 4’s and a ball straight back to the bowler and Farhan making his debut for the Heath scored 4. Archie Langley joined opener Steve and was in the process of rescuing the innings and were looking to post an above par score in the region of 130 to 150, but at 84 Steve was expertly caught low down in the outfield for 32. This left the confident looking Archie with the tail, but they hardly troubled the scores and they left him high and dry on 16 not out and the Heath posting a disappointing 96 all out.
The low score didn’t mean the 3rd eleven side were completely out of this, but early wickets were a must. ‘H’ Monk bowled really tight missing the edge on numerous occasions and was unfortunate to end up wicketless. From the other end Bilal was on fire and produced one of the best and quickest bowling spells of the season, he cleaned all ends up one of the Old Roan openers. The other opener couldn’t play the pace of Bilal but had luck on his side as frequent edges flew through, over and wide of the slip cordon. Archie finally bowled him but with score at 66, this came too late to save the inevitable defeat by 8 wickets, this could have been so different if we could have got into their middle order early, which our opening spell of bowling deserved.
After the match every one of the opposing spectators commented on the excellent pace and accuracy of our ‘man of the match’ Bilal’s bowling, with their long term groundsman saying it was the quickest he had seen all season. Let’s hope for more luck which we deserve in coming matches and a top half finish to the season could still be in reach.