Pirates Go Down Fighting

Ross Gurbutt writes...

Reigate bowled well from the start, getting the new ball to move and keeping St Lukes to 30-1 from 10 overs. However, two dropped catches in the field and a few too many wides later St Lukes were 100-2 at drinks and cruising. After this, Reigate took a more attacking attitude with bowling changes and field settings, resulting in wickets falling and St Lukes being pinned back to 194-8 at the end of their innings. Economical bowling from Friend, Haughton and Qasim after drinks helped to frustrate the St Lukes batsmen and was key to the fall of their wickets.

The Pirates inning’s started well with Hook and Vuppala getting off to a controlled start of 40 from 10 facing the St Lukes’ quicks. Vuppala fell to a thick edge which carried all the way to the third-man boundary with Hook and Gurbutt falling soon after to the newly introduced spinner. Mitchell batted patiently for 33, but departed just as he had begun to kick on. The middle order added a few runs, but at 136-7 when Qasim joined Manoj at the crease, the game was looking like a lost cause. Shortly afterwards Manoj was allowed a runner due to an injury picked up whilst bowling. Qasim began to kick on, booming boundaries to all parts, with some assistance from Manoj who, it turns out, is much happier to call for quick singles when he’s not the one running them. Reigate progressed to 181-7 from 43 overs, meaning that they needed 14 from 12 balls to pull off an unlikely win. However it was not to be with first Manoj and then Qasim falling in the 44th over, both bowled, trying to hit the leather off the ball facing the opener, and forgetting perhaps that the old floaty spinner from St Lukes still had to bowl the last. Reigate lost their final wicket to the third ball of the last over, coming up 10 runs short of victory in the end.

Although we lost, everyone put in their all and the 2 extra bonus points gained by not giving up the chase at 136-7 may come in very useful later in the season.