1st XI vs Bentley CC, 1st XI

And so the unbeaten run finally ends, somewhat unexpectedly at neighbours Bentley. It was a performance that left you shaking your head, wondering how you could lose a game which, at the end of their innings, could not have been foreseen.

Winning the toss, Dave Hickey decided we could chase a total that our bowlers could restrict them to. Early breakthroughs for Sam Bear in the fifth over, and successive balls in the ninth reduced the hosts to 23-3, and we were in the ascendancy. A steady partnership of 41 was accrued before the fall of the fourth wicket and when two wickets tumbled just before drinks, it looked like a below par score was on the cards. They then upped their game and put on another 53 runs in almost 10 overs before losing two wickets in the same over for the second time. Caleb Seleka took his SIXTH four wicket haul in the league this season and even got his first run-out of the campaign. Sam taking the final wicket meant that he also took four wickets in the innings (his second consecutive four wicket haul) and Bentley were bowled out for 139 in the 36th over. This meant that we had 49 overs to chase down their total at a rate of less than three an over.

The umpires decided that we should bat our first 10 overs before taking tea. Losing both openers in the eighth over wasn't the ideal start, and it was then decided by the umpires to take tea. Caleb getting caught at the wicket from the first ball immediately after tea was another setback, but Will Howard and Jamie Walton seemed to put us back in charge, but when he decided to leave a straight one (having been the only player in the match to pass 30), Bentley suddenly had a sense that they might get something out of the game. Pressure was applied, and for the first time this season, the 1's looked in real trouble. Wickets began to tumble as the runs began to get scarcer, with boundaries being the only form of release, A good example of this was the skipper's 16 runs from 19 runs, all boundaries. He was unfortunately caught by his opposing number, leaving injured batsmen Ryan Plom to try and guide us home. He was the last wicket to fall, caught on the boundary, as he was barely able to run. We lost by 12 runs, and with that, our place at the summit of the league table.

Three dropped catches didn't do too much damage, but it was symptomatic of our fielding on the day. On the other side, they didn't drop anything, including two one-handed catches in the slips and some great catches on the boundaries. They also didn't concede any extras as their bowlers tightened the screws when they realised that there was a chance of victory.

Next we travel to new leaders Harold Wood and need to get this result out of our system. We do not want to start going backwards.