2nd XI beat Chessington by 3 wickets
The twos returned to winning ways with a victory made possible by an outstanding bowling performance. The returning Arthur JJ set the tone, picking up a wicket in the first over of the contest before Rahul Dev held onto a tricky chance in the second to leave Chessington 3-2 early on.
After decent resistance from their Nos 3 and 4, Yas took two wickets in an over – the first of which came courtesy of an outstanding catch from Hal behind the stumps – to put us back on top. Louis and Harry spun a web around their middle order, not letting them score at any sort of rate. Both varied their pace to good effect and were well supported by Rahul whose change in pace brought about the end of Chessington’s dangerous looking No. 9. Arthur cleaned up the tail to leave us chasing 113 - a total well within our reach, especially considering the lightening outfield.
Charlie and Narayan combined up top and started positively. Though Narayan fell after a brisk start, at 43-1 we were cruising it. That was until their first change seamer, a big guy who bowled a fair bit sharper than you think he should, ran through our middle order. Hal, not for the first time this season, then steadied the ship, guiding us home with Louis for company. Hal’s 36* was chanceless while Louis’ 22 swung the momentum back in our favour.
An excellent team performance. Special shoutouts to Arthur, Louis and Harry for their respective spells, Hal for his tidy keeping and calm head in the middle, the openers for getting us off to a relative flyer and Louis for guiding us home at the end.