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Saturday 09:06:07 |
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Having lost twice last year in the
corresponding fixtures, Chesterfords travelled down to
Epping Foresters this Saturday with much to avenge. Winning
the toss, Captain Wazz Mughal elected to bat first and take
the fight to the opposition. Chesterfords had a steady start
against a good Epping bowling attack, with Dave Lightning
(17) and Paul Phillips (9) airing on the side of caution.
Phillips succumbed to the left arm bowling of Quant with the
score on 29, and Lightning followed 4 runs later. Luke
Claydon and James Pullen started to rebuild the innings,
before a rush of blood saw Claydon caught for 20. This
brought Dave Perring, the run scorer from the week before to
the crease. Together Perring and Pullen turned the balance
of power in Chesterfords favour. Pullen took the initial
impetus mixing solid defence with attacking prowess and
flamboyance extraordinaire as both batsmen made the most of
any ball that was misplaced by the bowler. Perring soon
jumped on the band wagon, at one point taking 21 runs off a
single over. Pullen was eventually bowled for 66 with the
score now at 206 following his 149 run partnership with
Perring. Wazz Mughal briefly joined in the fun and games as
he thumped 23 runs to all parts of the ground from only 13
balls before he was caught and bowled. Greg Watson again
added some lower order support for Perring who by this point
was in devasting form, making it very difficult for the
bowlers to know what to do with him. Perring eventually
carried his bat for a superb 94 not out allowing
Chesterfords to post a huge total of 267-6 off their 45
overs.
Epping Foresters came out looking to finish the game as soon
as possible. Chesterfords dropped a couple of early catches,
but eventually the fielding standard rose back to its usual
level of excellence, and with some canny opening bowling
from Alan Stokley and James Pullen, the screw of pressure
began to tighten. Stokley continued where he left off from
the previous week taking 3 for 48 from his 10 overs,
including the invaluable wicket of Epping’s big hitting
batsman Rob Petchey. Dave Lightning pulled out a fantastic
catch diving full stretch in the gully to remove the Epping
Captain, and Pullen managed to concuss himself taking a
magnificent catch on the boundary to really throw the game
Chesterfords way. Wazz Mughal with 3 catches assisted Steve
Squares’ return to bowling as the spinner mesmerised the
Epping middle order taking 3 wickets for 37 runs. With the
run rate creeping to over 10 an over, all that was left for
Chesterfords to do was to bowl tightly and that is exactly
what Dave Perring (0 for 34) and Wazz Mughal (1 for 33) did
leaving Epping stuck at 239-8 from their 45 overs giving
Chesterfords a well deserved 28 run victory.
Scorecard
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