The Mogs travelled the short distance to South Nutfield on Sunday, and welcomed 2 new players in the form of Steve Saker and Grant Wood from Maori Oxshott. Skipper for the day Andy Tharp won the toss and decided that the Mogs would bat first in a declaration game.
Peter and Richie opened the innings for the Mogs, and had taken the score to 20, when in the 5th over Peter was run out by 1st slip as he had thought the ball was actually at fine leg, unaware the ball had deflected off the keeper. To say that he was bemused is an understatement! Ben joined Richie, who was timing the ball very sweetly. The pair had put on 90 runs when Richie tried to square cut the young leg spinner and hit straight to Jack Bellars for a well-made 73. Grant Wood joined Ben at the crease, and as we have seen from playing against him the last couple of years, played an aggressive innings of 22 from 4 scoring shots (6,6,4,6) before re-creating the infamous Botham Leg Over incident and falling hit wicket. Dave Stevens joined Ben, who had played himself in and was looking very dangerous, and they shared a 50 run partnership before Dave holed out at long on trying to increase the run rate. Jordan Bunyan was next in and shared a 58 run partnership with Ben, who reached a marvellous century in the 42nd over having played one of his best innings for the Mogs, a mix of powerful straight and cover drives with solid defence and keen running between the wickets. Ben was out in the next over when he was stumped, and Steve Saker and Jordan managed to score 18 runs between them before the declaration came with the Mogs 275-5 off 43 overs.
An excellent tea was devoured by all the players, great sandwiches, sausage rolls and homemade cakes along with scones and cream!
The Mogs went out to the field promptly hoping to give themselves enough time to bowl the strong looking South Nutfield batting line-up out. Joe and Charlie opened the attack, but both found the going tricky against some powerful stroke play from the opening batsmen. Charlie bowled an excellent in swinging delivery to bowl the left handed Stevens, however after 12 overs South Nutfield has raced to 86-1 and the run chase was most definitely on. Andy Tharp replaced Joe and struck twice in his first over removing Brown and the dangerous Jack Bellars 2nd ball. Will Cooper accounted for Chris Walker in his 1st over and the Mogs were right back in the game. As mentioned South Nutfield have a strong batting line up, and although Andy removed the hard hitting Hames for 61, the no's 6 & 7 of South Nutfield put together a fine partnership of over 50 and the run chase was most definitely on again.
The introduction of Steve Saker proved crucial, with the run rate required at around 10 an over, Steve bowled as we all know he can, and proceeded to remove both the no's 6 & 7 in quick succession, and with required 18 off four balls and three wickets remaining Steve had Crawford stumped, and then had Driver caught going for the maximum, 2 balls remained and the no 11 batsmen negotiated them to leave the match drawn.
An excellent game of cricket, great hosts, great tea and great debut's! Both Steve and Grant have indicated that they would love to play more games next year which is great news for the club. Next week we return to Ockham after a couple of years absence
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