The 2s' pre-season preparations continued on the 2nd pitch at Bushy Park on Saturday. There were some encouraging performances in what was a close and hard-fought game of cricket, but Teddington ultimately lost in the last over.
After some good negotiation which resulted in a 40 over game (10 overs max per bowler), stand in captain Johnnie Smith lost the toss and TCC were asked to bat. The innings could not have got off to a worse start as we lost the ever dependant Nick Pryde to the first ball of the game and we soon found ourselves reeling at 29-3. With the odd ball popping off a length, Rennison (92) and A Smith (53) set about building a partnership. Rennison was the chief aggressor with some brutal straight hitting as the TCC pair combined to put on a stand of 150 from as many balls. This put TCC in a good position to push towards 250. However, after Rennison was dismissed looking to up the rate, the rest of the batting line-up couldn’t get going and TCC ended up with 219 from their 40 overs.
With only 3 frontline bowlers and a stand-in keeper, TCC knew they would have to perform well to maintain their 100% start to the season. Swan (2-58) and Thorndyke (0-4) began well and kept on top of the opening pair. Unfortunately, Thorndyke was forced out of the attack through injury after only 4 overs, meaning TCC needed to get 6 overs out of the Pryde (0-34). Despite the setback, TCC maintained the pressure with J Smith (2-60) chipping in with two wickets, keeping them behind the required rate for most of the innings. Munday (0-57) bowled well with no luck, but TCC were eventually left to rue a couple of dropped catches in the field. TCC just didn’t pick up enough wickets throughout the innings and The Authentics, led well by their skipper, Clements (106*), ultimately edged home with 5 balls to spare to win by 5 wickets.
Although it was a shame to come up short, most players have now had a good run out over the two pre-season games so should be ready to hit the ground running in the league next week at Highgate.