Saker and Haughton Jr make light work of Banstead target

The last league game of the season saw the Llamas (with 8 under 21’s in this week’s team) away at Borough neighbours Banstead.
With neither promotion nor relegation issues for either side the game fitted the “end of season” tag with Banstead only fielding 10 players.

Banstead chose to bat and both Ollie Thilo & Will Hodgson set off with a spell of 6 overs each; both frequently beating the bat and both getting a wicket.
Harawal Wassam (7) was caught at mid off by Sakes off Ollie’s bowling (7-1 in the 3rd over) and Will then got one to seam back from outside off to bowl Jamie Montabello for 1 (16-2 in the 6th over).
Banstead laboured to reach 50 in the 17th over when Rory parried and then caught Banstead Captain Jon Gunasekera (18) off Mobeen’s bowling to leave Banstead 50-3.
Mobeen struck again in the 21st over to get Gregory Dann LBW for 9
-score 60-4.
In his next over Mobeen bowled Satchi Mahendran for 1 to leave Banstead 72-5 in the 23rd over.
Mobeen figures of 10-2-17-3 were a just reward for another fine spell of accurate bowling.
Luke Haughton then had Calum Estall stumped for 12 by Ashwin Bhat and Banstead were 93-6 after 30 overs.
Luke (10-0-36-2) again in the 36th over when a mixture of flight & drift deceived Sam Thorpe who got into a tangle and managed to hit the ball with the back of his bat to loop one up for Rory to catch-There may be other (more accurate ?) versions of the events surrounding this dismissal.
Banstead were now 113-7 in the 36th over.
The Banstead opener Chris Bolton had scored 52 having survived 2 dropped catches behind from Ashwin (the balance later redressed by 2 stumpings), when standing up to Ollie and Mobeen. Wilbur (9-0-30-1) dismissed him when he hit one to mid off for Jordan Bunyan to catch.
Ollie Thilo & Will Hodgson both returned for their second spells to each complete their 10 overs-Ollie’s figures were 10-1-31-1 & Will’s were 10-2-36-1
A brief wag of the tail from Sadiq Khan with some big hits took Banstead from 124-8 in the 41st over up to the 50th over bowled by All-Rounder Henry Tye (1-0-1-1) who enticed a 2nd stumping by Ashwin off the last ball to dismiss Sadiq Khan for 26 to leave Banstead 151-9 after their 50 overs.
Only 9 extras this week (last week 35) & a good over rate again today with the 50 overs bowled from 12.05 to 3.10.

Sakes and Rory opened for the Llamas and 8 runs off the 1st over set the scoring rate to follow.
After 6 overs it was 47-0 with Neil already on 38 having set about both opening bowlers Calum Estall and Sam Thorpe with some powerful boundaries, mostly straight back past & over the bowlers.
By the 9th over it was 63-0 with Sakes already passing his 50.
Change bowlers Sadiq Khan (Banstead’s top wicket-taker for their 2nd’s with 32 wickets this season) and Satchi Mahendren failed to stem the flow of boundaries.
Rory then took over and Sakes didn’t see too much of the strike as by the 14th over the score was 88-0 with Sakes on 54 & Rory 34.
Rory reached his 50 in the 16th over and the 100 partnership came up in the same over and at the end of the 16th over the score was 110-0.
By the 18th over at 124-0 they were almost level with Neil on 64 & Rory on 58.
With the partnership on 139 in the 20th over Neil had reached 72 when with another 6 in his sights he was stumped off the bowling of Banstead youngster Daniel Read.
The Banstead Captain Jon Gunasekera then bowled his 1st over of the season and briefly threatened to delay the finish, but it was not to be as Luke (14 no) and brother Rory (66 no with 52 in boundaries) finished the game in the 23rd over with the Llamas on 154-1.

Highlights Neil’s 72 & Rory 66 no in their opening stand of 139.