ECC 1st XI vs Crawley CC, Sussex, 2nd XI

The first league game of the season was finally upon us as the 1st XI welcomed Crawley CC 2s to the gate. The skipper finally won a toss and decided to field first.

The opening bowlers of Henry and Josh were unlucky to pick up a wicket between them in their first spell after both beating the bat multiple times. The same happened with Harvey after he replaced Henry at the road end of the ground, however his bowling partner Craig found the breakthrough when the Crawley opener got tempted and through his arms at the ball and a leading edge was well caught by Aaron at backward point. This gave the team the momentum that they needed to continue to break the Crawley batters down. Once again Craig got the Crawley number 1 LBW for a good looking 60, shortly after this Jamie got involved in the wickets by having a one caught at cover by Brad. This brought to the crease what only could be described as a big hitter. This batter was cleanly hitting the ball to all parts of the ground but just as he thought he hit another 6 it fell short and was caught well by Henry on the deep midwicket boundary off of Craig’s bowling. A smart runout then occurred from the skipper Andy to dismiss another batter. Then Jamie struck two more blows to the Crawley batting lineup one being bowled and the other being caught by Liam. Henry joined the party at the back end of the innings by picking up the Crawley number 9 and they finished 230-8 after their 40 overs.

A good batting performance was needed from the boys if they were going to win this game and Andy opted to open the batting with himself and Liam. Both got off to fast starts with the couple hitting multiple boundaries then Andy had a swipe at the ball and got out to a blinder of a catch at slip for 14. The next over Brad couldn’t replicate his previous innings and was out LBW for a golden duck. Henry then came out to the crease looking to build a partnership with Liam. Sadly Liam departed being caught behind for 16. Curt then went walking out to the middle to build on the fast start but this didn’t occur as he departed for 6 after being bowled. Joey then came out to the crease looking to rebuild on what was a bit of a shaky start to the innings. Henry had a free hit that was put away for 4 but then was bowled for 18. The second barman involved in the game met Joey in the middle but shortly departed for 6 after being bowled as well. Harvey then joined Joey at the crease and with his pulled quad was battling hard throughout. These two were trying to replicate their under 16s partnerships to help the gate up towards the total and this happened. After ticking over the scoreboard with a few boundaries Joey brought up his 50 with dropping a single into the off side and then the Crawley fielder throwing it for 4 overthrows. The youngsters continued to build their partnership but Joey tried to push the scoring along and got caught after a well earned 73 and around a 70-80 partnership. Craig came out to the crease after this to help the team get over the line but Harvey was bowled shortly after for once again a well earned 42. Jamie joined Craig at the crease to push for the win and then Craig got caught for 4. Josh then came wandering out to the middle to meet Jamie and after a good couple of overs the pair needed 3 off the last ball to win it for the gate. After the Crawley bowler decided to not pull out of his run up, Josh guided the ball down towards first man and the boys ran 2 and Jamie came back looking for a third to try and win the game but Jamie was ran out on the last ball of the game meaning that the game was a tie.

Overall great game of cricket was played with 460 runs in the match.

Special Mentions: Craig 3-36, Jamie 3-46 good catch to take the bails off for Andy’s run out 8 crucial runs, Henry 1-43, Joey 73, Harvey 42, Josh crucial 11*

We look to gain our first win of the league season next week away to Chippingdale CC

#UPTHEGATE