Grasshoppers Caught On The Hop

Top of the table Oxted Grasshoppers were the visitors to the 2nd placed Llamas in the Surrey Slam played at Park Lane on a warm & sunny summer evening.

Oxted won the toss & put the Llamas into bat where openers Sam Clark & Brijesh Patel, having scored just a single from the 1st over, were soon setting the pace as both found the boundary. With the score on 69 in the 9th over, Brijesh (25 from 24 deliveries) was caught at mid on by Nick Emmins off Pete Glancy’s bowling (4-0-29-1). The run rate increased with Greg Penning’s short stay (15 from 11 deliveries) which ended when Greg was bowled by Nick Emmins (4-0-28-1) in the 11th over as the Llamas reached 88-2.

Ross Gurbutt now partnered Sam Clark as the runs flowed and with the score on 112 in the 14th over Sam reached 53no and retired having scored 6 fours & 2 sixes from his 37 deliveries. Ross Gurbutt was the last Llama wicket to fall in the 16th over with the score on 141 as Ross (26 from 18 deliveries) was caught by Harry Ejje from Hamish MacMillan’s bowling (4-0-28-1). It was left to Joel Miller (19 no) and Srikanth Vuppala (11no without a boundary !) to take the Llamas to 169-3 at the end of their 20 overs with every batsman scoring at least a run a ball.

On a good wicket with a fast outfield the Llamas made early inroads with a wicket in each of the 1st 3 overs. A wicket 2nd ball of Srikanth’s opening over as Will Heaver (0) steered a ball to Shayne Cossey at gully for 0-1. Ned Littlemore (3-0-17-1) then had Ben Cooper (1) caught at mid on by Callum Gurbutt for 5-2 and then the two bowlers combined as Srikanth got his 2nd wicket as Ned Littlemore diving forward took a good catch to dismiss Harry Ejje (4) and at 10-3 the Grasshoppers were in trouble.

A recovery between wicket keeper Joe Kourea & Gilbert Kearns, which took Oxted to 42 after 6 overs, was broken as Joe Kourea (19) was out when Llama keeper Ross Gurbutt took a sharp catch to give Srikanth his 3rd wicket (4-0-25-3) and leave Oxted at 48-4 after 7 overs.
With the Llamas on top it was to stay that way as Sumair Qasim’s 1st over saw him dismiss Gilbert Kearns (33) as the ball just about reached Ross Gurbutt for a caught behind. 69-5 became 79-6 as Sumair struck again (2-0-9-2) this time with the help of another good catch by Ned Littlemore making good ground to catch Pete Glancy (8).

Although the ground fielding wasn’t great (often difficult on the Park Lane outfield), the same could not be said for the quality of the Llama catches as in the 15th over Shayne Cossey ran to make a 2 handed catch on the boundary to give Manoj Rajarethinam his 1st wicket in dismissing Neil Ejje (7) for 89-7. The very next ball Manoj bowled Rory Donnelly (0) deflecting off his pads onto the stumps for 89-8. Although the hat trick was avoided it was only by 1 ball as Manoj then got his 3rd wicket (1-0-4-3) bowling Hamish MacMillan (0) as Oxted lost their 3rd wicket with the score on 89.

The Oxted innings ended in the next (16th over) and appropriately it was Ned Littlemore who finished off his excellent fielding (& bowling) display when his direct hit ran out Nick Emmins (0) and Oxted Grasshoppers were all out for 91 as the Llamas, with a healthy net run rate, moved to joint top of the league.