Sunday XI v David Smarts XI 31st July 2016

M & B were soundly beaten by Dave Smart's X1 on Sunday, officially by 45 runs but in truth a lot easier than that. Smart's X1 elected to bat upon winning the toss and to be fair the M & B opening bowlers, particularly Alkesh Vaja, beat the bat regularly, without finding the edge, or when it was found it went for 4 through third man. Opener Price, playing his first game for a number of years grew in confidence and was strong driving through the covers and straight. Spinner Thomas Noakes got the first break through enticing Sykes to drive to Bowler at mid off, with the score on 56 in the 12th over. Thereafter Price tended to score the majority of his scoring on the leg side hitting Armstrong over midwicket for a bid six to the church boundary. Matt Armstrong exacted his revenge getting him caught and bowled in the next over for 69 in the 26th over with the score on 125. By now Noakes had completed his allocation with figures of 8/2/31/1, which proved to be the teams best figures. A window of opportunity opened as Thomas Allen bowled Murphy in the next over, his first, to leave Smart's X1 on 129 for 3 with two batsmen on 0. Both new batsmen though hit Allen for two 6's in an over and then were dismissed. No 6 Corby played a belligerent innings of 38 in no time as the runs began to pile on, his innings contained 6 4's and a 6. Opening bowlers Vaja and Kieran Grey both came on at the end to pick up wickets but the runs continued to flow. In the end Dave Smart's X1 finished on 244 for 9 off their 40 overs, which looked a big task based upon their bowling resources.

M&B's reply got off to a terrible start as junior colt Krish Vaja whipped out opener Brian Dixon with sheer pace, yorking him before he could get him bat down, in his first over. Capped off by then having his older brother, Starvin Bhavin, caught for 6 in his fourth over, to leave M & B floundering on 15 for 2 after 8 overs. All along Lythall was his economical self, generating movement and pace off three paces as he trotted off three successive maidens and then got the key wicket of Brett Van Niekirk for 1, castled as he tried to turn a full length ball to leg. Tim Smart prevented M &B from further suffering at 26 for 3 by talking Lythall off after 6 overs, recording figures of 1 for 9. A mini revival was formed by William Western-Kaye and Kieran Grey of 52 in 8 overs before WWK was dismissed for 27. Grey scoring mainly from drives got to 44 before he was caught, his innings including 9 4's. Thereafter M & B's chances rested with skipper James Bowler and Alkesh Vaja. They didn't disappoint as they added 64 for the 6th wicket. Bowler was probably batting too low at 7 and played fluently for his 28, which included three boundaries, one via a cover drive and two from pulls. A sweetly timed lofted cover drive was unfortunately plucked out of the air yards from going for six, as he hit to the largest boundary on the ground. At 177 for 6 it just left M & B to play for pride and to see what score Vaja would end up with. In the end he couldn't quite reach a deserved half century and was dismissed for 49, which contained 6 4's and a 6. It was left to Krish Vaja to take the last wicket, having Matt Armstrong brilliantly caught in the gully by Brennan and leave Vaja with brilliant figures of 6.4 overs 2 maidens 3 for 17, not bad for a 13 year old ! The victory was more comprehensive than the winning margin suggested as the Smarties used all ten bowlers.