Colts Julian Cup - Quarter Finals
Fresh from their Berkshire County Cup triumph on Friday, Maidenhead & Bray continued their quest for a cup double this season when they travelled to Binfield on Monday to play a quarter final match in the Julian Cup.
Bray won the toss and chose to bat first. Some tight bowling and excellent fielding from Binfield meant that runs were hard to come by at the outset. Bray lost an early wicket when Oscar Beardmore-Gray was caught and with fellow opener Brett Herron finding it difficult to find the gaps in the field the scoring rate was only running at 4 runs per over. Captain Alex Hess (19) increased the scoring rate but when he was out in the 8th over and Herron (13) had to retire one ball later under Julian Cup rules, Bray found themselves at mid innings with their score on 41 and two new batsmen at the crease. One of these batsmen was Jamie Odell and after playing himself in he proceeded to unleash a series of powerful drives on the way to a personal score of 24. With good support at the other end from Vishal Gossain (11) and Sachin Moudgil (11), Bray finished their allotted 16 overs on 97 for 5 wickets.
Bray were confident that this score would be sufficient if their powerful bowling line up was matched by an excellent fielding performance and this proved to be the case. Opening bowler Jamie Odell kept an excellent line and length to restrict the Binfield batsmen at the start of the innings, bowling 4 overs for only 9 runs. He was well supported by Brett Herron and Vishal Gossain who claimed identical figures of 1 for 10 from 3 overs bowled. With Cameron Mahon picking up an early wicket and excellent fielding resulting in 4 run outs during the innings, Binfield never threatened to get near to the Bray total and finished their 16 overs on 68 for 7. Bray won by the comfortable margin of 29 runs and now have a home semi final to look forward to against Desborough School.
