MBCC Third XI versus Wokingham 4th 16th May 2015
Having been put in to bat by Wokingham, Bray got off to a scoring start with Dave Grey – wicketkeeper-batsman, not singer-songwriter – opening his TVL account with 2 before nicking off the next ball to bring the Sunday Premier League star Yousef Qureshi to the crease. Qureshi shortly succumbed for 5 leaving Bray at 7-2 in the second over. Phil Cowell and the 2nd opener, Jamie Kiddell, steadied the ship to see through the first 10 overs before Cowell was bowled for 4. Wickets fell at regular intervals from then on.
Kiddell started to play more expansive shots, including a sumptuous straight drive back over the head of W.C.C. 4th XI’s ringer (and former Bray player), Markus Viljoen, but was bowled for 13 having shown a great deal of patience and restraint whilst at the crease. Soon came and went Todd Lindley – in his TVL debut, Andrew Tucker and Ahmed Talal, the latter of whom blasted a short-lived cameo of 14, including launching one of his huge trademark sixes over the mid-wicket (cow corner) region. In what could be a turning point for the Laws of the game, Ed Sears managed to find a new way to be dismissed – MBOLBW (Middled-Ball-On-Leg-Before-Wicket) and Josh Wallace – known for batting patiently for long periods of time – fell for 9, leaving Bray at 55-9. Callum Phillips and Tom Allen attempted a come-back - putting on 15 together – with Allen uncharacteristically playing all his scoring shots with ‘the V’ – before Allen was bowled for 9 leaving behind Phillips on 6 and his dreams of a maiden century. Bray’s innings finished at 70 all out.
With opening bowler and new acquisition, Andrew Tucker, off injured, Bray knew that there was no margin for error. Phillips and Qureshi bowled tightly, the former inducing a large percentage of play-and-misses outside off-stumps. Qureshi made the first breakthrough trapping Wokingham’s number 2 LBW and quick thinking from Cowell saw their number 3 – guilty of some dubious calling – run-out for 17. Phillips finished with figures of 7-2-15 and can rightly feel aggrieved by not picking up a few wickets.
Enter Messrs. Allen and Viljoen, Allen enacting revenge and bowling Viljoen’s middle stump as he attempted to get off the mark off, perhaps with a six over wide long-on. Qureshi finished with figures of 11-1-35-1 shortly before Wokingham wrapped up the innings with 4 from Lindley’s only over and hitting the first ball of the 24th - and Allen’s 5th - over for 4, leaving him with figures of 4.1-1-9-1 – unfortunate not to have won Bray a second bowling point with a tough chance dropped by the wicketkeeper. Wokingham finished their game with five solid TFCs, with both bowlers also batting.
Given the impressive bowling and fielding performances, it may well have been a different game had Bray bowled first but - with credit to the only two bowlers used by Wokingham – Bray simply did not bat well enough as a team and will need to strength in that area if looking to better last season’s position in the league.
