With a powerful and youthful line up for a round one clash, the Teddington 2nd XI had high hopes for a strong start to the season against a newly promoted Highgate side.
Winning the toss and electing to bat on a very low wicket a bright start was made reaching 1-114 (Pryde 55 & Osmond 43) by the 30th over. Despite some tight bowling from the Highgate spinners, the score ticked along at a steady rate & with serious fire power still in the sheds, a score of 220+ was still in sight. Unfortunately, this was where our grip on the game ended. Both established batsmen fell within a couple of overs & a loss of 7-28 crucified our innings. Poor shots, runs outs, and clever bowling, were all to blame for the collapse. Some lower order hitting from the two skippers (Baggs & Swan) got us to a respectable total of 188 all out (Baggs scored a run a ball 32). We were at least 30 runs below par though and we needed something special from our bowling & fielding.
Knowing we needed early wickets, Swanny delivered in the first over with a ‘jaffer’ to remove the openers off stump. Highgate’s senior pair then batted sensibly to put on a partnership of 77 to have the game in complete control. Robin Willis bowled his 9 overs straight, constantly beating the outside edge but without luck (0-25). With a couple more consolidating partnerships throughout, Highgate were never really in danger. However, some late overs panic ensured we had ‘half a sniff’ in the final two overs. Needing 11 off 12 and 5 off six, we weren’t far off snatching a lucky victory. However, Highgate hit the winning runs with 4 balls to spare and 4 wickets in hand. In addition to Robin, Swan and Euan bowled very well with figures of 2-35 & 3-38 respectively.
The focus for this week will no doubt be to turn up (on time) & be ready to show the competition why we are a title contender, particularly in our batting innings.