Bad day at the office as Moles make 208 chase look easy

A visit to the Hampton Court Maze and a walk along the Thames towpath to watch the paddlers in their kayaks and canoes and the Labradors diving in the Thames to fetch their sticks; were some of the ways you could have chosen to spend the day at East Molesey; that’s of course if you could tear yourself away from the World Cup. Another option was to play Cricket for the 2’s against East Molesey at their cricket ground beside the Thames.

Another tight game was expected with only 4 points separating the Llamas from this week’s opponents. There were 4 more changes from last week, including first appearances of the season in the 2’s for Nick Gavigan-promoted from the 3’s after last week’s 6 wickets, and Jonathan Smith up from last week’s Pirates.
The number of players used by the 2’s this season was now up to 29 from 7 games played.

With a green track on a square where the Moles 1st team were all out for 28 earlier in the season it wasn’t a surprise when East Molesey won the toss and put us in. Overhead cloud and a new ball gave early swing for bowlers Beck and Moore and Llama openers Jonathan Smith and Henry Tye had to dig-in. After 15 overs with the score on 40 Jon and Henry had managed to see off their openers only for Jonathan (20) to be bowled in the 17th over by 1st change Zain Rizvi (score 45-1). Luke Haughton (0) followed LBW to Ben Campbell in the 19th over (score 52-2)
Scoring was still difficult and in 9 overs (18 to 26) the score only progressed to 59.

After the drinks break Captain Neil Saker hit a straight six to bring a change of scoring rate and Henry, who had been patiently building his innings, reached his 50 in the 32nd over.

The pair began to dominate the bowlers and had reached 143 in the 42nd over when Henry was out stumped for 67. Galer joined Sakes and Sakes reached his own 50 in the 45th over before he was run out for 54 (158-4) when Galer smashed a ball back at the bowler who half stopped it only for the ball to deflect onto the wicket where Neil was out of his ground.

With only 10 overs left there was an urgency to move the score along. Hutch joined Galer and in the 50th over with his score on 8 Matt attempted to put the ball in the Thames but was caught on the longest part of the boundary (174-5). Will Irving also tried to score quickly but on 8 in the 52nd over Will was also out caught at deep long on (189-6). Christian Bond (0) was bowled next ball (189-7) by leg spinner Daniel Foy. This left Wilbur Tiley to join Galer. The scoreboard overs were a bit behind and Jon thought he had a couple more overs available, but his 31 not out did take us over the 200 mark to finish on 207 for 7 after our allotted 55 overs.

In their last 2 fixtures East Molesey 2’s had won by 10 wickets (131-0) and 9 wickets (124-1) respectively. Their openers Captain Kieran Burge and Jason Moore then threatened to do the same to the Llamas. Bowlers Matt Hutcheon and Ollie Thilo were unable to make a breakthrough and after 16 overs the Moles had raced to 66. Christian Bond finally split the pair in the 16th over when he clean bowled Jason Moore (66-1). New Zealander Blaine Bannister joined his Captain and it was the Captain Kieran Burge (38) who was next to go in the 23rd over (87-2) when cleaned bowled by Hutch (smashing a bail in the process).

By this time the East Molesey 1st teamers had swelled the spectator numbers having been well beaten in an early finish at Park Lane. I did wonder if there had been a mistake in the fixtures and their 2’s had gone to Reigate and our 2’s were playing their 1’s. With their 1’s bottom and their 2’s top of their respective divisions I’m not sure their selectors have got it right.

In an attempt to break their partnership Sakes switched his bowlers around with Nick Gavigan’s 3 overs 0-15 and Wilbur Tiley’s 3 overs also 0-15, but Malkin and Bannister rarely looked in trouble and had moved onto 165 when in the 38th over Luke Haughton held onto a low return catch to remove Malkin for 30 (165-3). Luke’s 3 overs brought him 1-20. Will Irving was the next bowler tried by Sakes and in his 1st over Will finally got Bannister (69) out LBW (183-4 in the 39th over).
George Cairns (23no) took the Moles to their 207 target in the 42nd over for a 6 wicket win.

When the opposition hit the good balls for boundaries you can only applaud (perhaps reluctantly if you’re the bowler) but the Llama bowlers, who often are the ones who drag us back into games, will be annoyed with themselves that there were too many bad balls bowled which meant we couldn’t apply any pressure.

After 7 games the 2’s are now down to 5th but, in a tight division, only 25 points off top and with 24 points for a timed win, all is still to play for.

Highlights Henry Tye 67 and Neil Saker 54.