2nd XI Match Report - 30/4/22

The action as it happened from the 2nd XI Skipper.

A much changed 2^nd XI visited top of the league Old Vigornians at Kings Hawford.

Winning his third toss in a row, B Hansford opted to field. T Stevens and L Heilbronn bowled with accuracy and control making the first breakthrough in the 9th over leaving Old Vigs 24-1. The good start continued with the introduction of the threatening C MacKenzie and good initial overs from Cook. Old Vigs lost their opener retired hurt to a fierce ball from MacKenzie before removing their number 3 to a smart catch at deep gully by R Cook.

At 65-2 in the 17th Belbroughton were well on top. The dangerous Ashray came in at 4 and played his shots from the outset taking the home side to 101-2 at drinks (22 overs) accelerating to 170-2 in the 30th and when Ashray finally departed for 106 in the 32nd over Old Vigs were 191-3!

Belbroughton rallied really well with 3 wickets in the next 5 overs, leaving Old Vigs 211-7 in the 37th seeing them limp to 256-7 from their 45. At one point it looked like we could be chasing 350 plus!

A steady response saw M Evans and A MacKenzie put on 21 before Evans was dismissed, shortly followed by MacKenzie.

Regular wickets fell in response, brief partnerships between Hansford and Heilbronn, then Hansford and A McKevitt showed potential in chasing down the target. But Old Vigs bowlers were miserly and the ton scoring Ashray turned the screw in the middle, eventually returning figures of 9 overs, 2-19.

When McKevitt fell for a spritely 22 Belbroughton were 91-4 in the 25th. The comfortable looking Hansford having run out of partners fell 2 overs later trying to force something out of nothing, taken by a stunning diving catch in the deep.

With plenty of time to bat out, the tail was given the instructions to bat out the overs and get some good game time out in the middle. L Ranasinghe enjoyed the chance and returned 25 not out. Todd Stevens enjoyed avoiding his third duck in a row and Belbroughton passed the threshold for 3 batting bonus points, despite some senior players still not quite understanding how the new bonus point system works!!

The difference between the sides really was one player. Despite dropping 4 catches, including the dangerous Ashray twice (once on about 30, once on 90) Belbroughton showed great resilience in the face of a 15 over onslaught in the field to bounce back and restrict Old Vigs. It really was a classic “catches win matches” day. Also a lack of depth in the batting meant the run chase was over pretty quickly. Plenty of positives to take away.

Old Vigornians CC - 256/7 (50 overs)

Belbroughton CC - 152/7 (50 overs)

MVP - L Ranasinghe (50 points)