Massey sees Pirates home in nerve-jangler

The mighty Pirates travelled the short distance up to Sutton to play an Bec Old Boys team who they had earlier success in beating in there first game of the season. Skipper Ross Gurbutt winning the toss and immediately inserting the opposition to bat first.

Sumair Qasim & Shamanna Devaraju took the new ball and immediately got into their rhythm bowling tight lines and enjoying some extra bounce from the wicket. And it was Sumair who got the early rewards by first having the Bec Old Boys Skipper caught smartly at first slip from Jonny Wickes and then shortly later having Kamran Shaeef trapped LBW for 15, leaving Bec Old Boys 50-2 from there first 12 overs. Then first change bowler Supathi Panchal came on and changed the game, immediately bamboozling opening Sulaiman Kahn (29) and having him caught at Gully by Chris Mallows. Panchal continued to bowl his magic and account for a further 3 wickets and finishing a fine spell of 9-0-27-4 and putting the pirates in control. Bec Old Boys had slipped to 87-5, and with constant wickets falling thanks to a crazy run out and good awareness from Matt Crighton in the field. Olly Massey picked up his first with a snorter of a delivery, by having Waseem Khan caught behind. However, Bec Old Boys fought hard with contributions from Izat Khan (29*) well supported by Noaman Khan (23) and Shami Rabani (16) late down the order got them up to 146 from 35 overs, with skipper Gurbutt finally getting the final wicket of there innings with Rabani clean bowled.

The Pirates began there chase with Chris Mallows & Matthew Crighton opening the batting who got them off to a steady start before disaster struck, first Crighton (14) given out LBW, before Jonny Wickes (4) also adjudged LBW soon after, when Mallows (9) was bowled by Rabani taking his second wicket of the match and meaning the Pirates had slipped from 30 without loss to suddenly 39-3. There was brief partnership between Steve Cross & Jake Pearce as they looked to repair the damage done, but once Cross (11) was caught behind, Tyler Shoare went the next bowl also caught behind and then Pearce (25) getting caught the following over the Pirates had lost 3 wickets with no runs added to the score and at 74-6 they looked all at sea on a sinking ship.

However, with the Skipper now at the crease alongside Olly Massey, the Pirates started to slowly rebuild. Massey started to take control and looked assertive at the crease choosing his balls to when to look to score and taking the majority of the strike as the Pirates edged closer to there 147 target. Wickets continued to fall the other end however, with Gurbutt (9), Sumair Qasim (4) both perishing and meaning the Pirates still required 36 runs to win with plenty of overs in hand but with 2 wickets remaining. Massey continued to bat sensibly rotating the strike and with Panchal (9*) supporting him the other end they finally saw the Pirates sail over the line, Massey (39*) finishing unbeaten with the highest score of the day and getting them through a tricky, and nervous finish.

So the Pirates finally got the win they had been desperately looking for getting over the line in a closely fought game which will hopefully help the turn the corner and start to see them sail up the league table!