We lost our\u00a0first\u00a0round\u00a0Cricketer Cup match on Sunday, being well beaten by 84 runs at Bradfield. \u00a0Bradfield have won the competition twice in the last five years and are invariably\u00a0very competitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On paper, our batting looked far stronger than our\u00a0bowling\u00a0but all was well on the keeping front with four potential\u00a0glovemen\u00a0to choose from.\u00a0\u00a0Losing the toss and being asked to bowl on a very green wicket was a bonus and Bradfield were initially\u00a0in trouble at 50-4 after 17 overs.\u00a0\u00a0Will\u00a0Rollings bowling\u00a0ten\u00a0overs\u00a0straight with excellent figures of 3-27.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A sensible partnership of 100 followed between opener Boulton (60) and an increasingly fluent Brabham (55).\u00a0\u00a0Three quick wickets\u00a0later\u00a0and it looked as though we might have re-established control\u00a0at 173-7\u00a0but\u00a0with fourteen\u00a0overs remaining\u00a0and\u00a0 captain\u00a0Abeed trying to fill twenty overs with part-timers,\u00a0an eighth\u00a0wicket partnership of 72 between\u00a0Ettridge\u00a0(34) and Williams (38*) set Bradfield up for an above par 255-8.\u00a0\u00a0As with last year,\u00a0extras were a problem (42\u00a0of which 33 were wides).\u00a0<\/p>\n
We suffered\u00a0a similar\u00a0start\u00a0to\u00a0our innings, being\u00a0reduced to 30-3 after ten overs\u00a0with\u00a0Smithson taking 3-21.\u00a0\u00a0Michael Burgess then began to show his class and made batting look easy.\u00a0\u00a0In partnership with first Will Bovill (15) and then Kent (27)\u00a0they\u00a0took the score to 143-4 with twenty overs\u00a0remaining\u00a0and\u00a0confidence was rising that we could reach the target.\u00a0\u00a0His removal for 78\u00a0was a huge blow and we lacked the lower order batting to continue the chase\u00a0with the final five wickets going down for the addition of only 28 in eleven overs for a total of 171.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the Waifs, Brabham and Boulter further enjoyed their day and added to their batting partnership by taking five wickets between them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thanks go to Bradfield for their hospitality and to\u00a0Copey\u00a0for combining\u00a0late selection\u00a0head aches\u00a0with a wedding in France.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe next\u00a0year\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
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We lost our\u00a0first\u00a0round\u00a0Cricketer Cup match on Sunday, being well beaten by 84 runs at Bradfield […]<\/p>\n