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Willoughby 2nd XI v Mears Ashby 2nd XI August 31st 2024

Willoughby 2nd XI v Mears Ashby 2nd XI August 31st 2024

Dave Alcock2 Sep 2024 - 10:04

Willoughby 2nd XI v Mears Ashby 2nd XI Saturday August 31st 2024

Willoughby 2s made the journey over to Mears Ashby hoping to put in a strong performance following a weekend off in the NCL the previous week.

There was a definite Autumnal chill in the air as captain Nikesh Misty won the toss and elected to bat. Get a score on the board and try to exert some pressure.

Messrs Matt Goss and Dave Alcock opened the batting for Willoughby, and Goss was quickly in his stride against the opening bowling of Bhatti (Emaan) and Muralidharan. Having taken most of the strike he eventually departed to the change bowling of Bhatti (Usman) for a well made 45 - Willoughby looking good on 68/1 from the first 10 overs.

The innings then quickly turned on its head, with a further 2 wickets in the next 2 balls - Vikas Sangwan departing first ball to Bhatti (Usman) and then Alcock to Bhatt (Emaan) for 18 (although I do claim an additional 4 that has been marked down to Goss!).

Luckily Sean Thornton began to find his range, and took the attack back to Mears Ashby. Hayden Davies was next to fall for 1, having put on 20 with Sean. Adam Alcock joined Sean at the crease, who was now finding the boundary regularly. Adam was eventually out for 13 after a useful stand of 60 with Sean.

A flurry of wickets again followed. Ramanaidu Mudraga scored a quick 19, and once Ram was out captain Mistry went on the attack.

The innings eventually folded with Nikesh not out on 36, and the score at 228 from 36 overs.

Willoughby went into the mid innings break satisfied with their score, but aware of being one bowler light due to an injury to Alcock (Dave) and also of the presence of regular first teamer Billy Druce in the Mears line up (Billy needing to play at home for good reasons).
The feeling was that the very quick outfield meant that 228 was likely only a par score, and we'd need to field well (the Mears Ashby fielding had been average to say the least) to contain them.

Vikas and Sean opened the attack for Willoughby, with the Mears Ashby batsmen looking pretty well organised - Mendon in particular. Pressure from Vikas told though, and Bhatti (Imran) was first to go, bowled trying to heave to leg. Druce then joined Mendon, and looked his usual calm self as he settled in.

Vikas then got Mendon, gloved behind and a fine catch from Ryan Perry keeping wicket. Druce was joined by Rajesh Shah and they began to build an excellent partnership - the two best batters in the Mears side combining well.

Pressure on the fielders began to tell, with a couple of difficult half chances going down, and a couple of more straightforward ones, plus some misses in the outfield gifting boundaries. Not the easiest of conditions to field in though with a very fast and bumpy outfield making it tricky at times.

Captain Misty juggled his bowlers looking to get a breakthrough, and eventually Shah (49) was dismissed by Vikas, and Druce (62) by Fergus Deery.

Willoughby's spirits raised, but a combination of a bit of back luck and a fair amount of power hitting shifted the momentum back to Mears. But when Bilal was out for a rapid 39, well caught in the deep by Adam Alcock off the bowling of Thornton, the match looked again to be in the balance.

Some big hits from Jayan put paid to that though on his way to 27 not out - seeing Mears Ashby victors by 5 wickets with an over to go.

Close again for Willoughby - but just need some improvements to the basics to get across the line.

Pick of the bowlers were Vikas with 3/55 from 10 overs, Sean 1 for 66 from 10 and Fergus 1 for 38, again from 10 (fantastic figures as pretty much the whole spell was at Druce and Shah). The rest of the overs shared between Ram, Mistry and John Gregson.

We go again next week!

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