Stevens stuns Sunbury with burst

Paul Bridge writes...
Reigate Priory beat the threat of showers and bad light to trounce Sunbury by eight wickets on Saturday and take a clear 23 point lead at the top of the Surrey Championship Premier League tables.
For the third week in a row, Llama skipper Luke Beaven was among the wickets with 4-53 while pace bowler Richard Stevens garnered a four wicket haul of top order Sunbury batsmen with figures of 4-33, as the visitor’s innings finished at 172 all out off 59.1 overs.
Chris Murtagh with 74 not out and Richie Oliver with 65 were the Priory batsmen who got the runs for the win, aided by an important 13-ball 21 not out by Craig Cachopa, the Sussex batsman, in the tense last few overs of the game in a race against the weather.
Two breaks for rain and bad light had truncated the number of overs available to the Priory to make the runs, which the team did in 30.3 overs, almost half the number of overs Sunbury had faced.
The Priory, who are sponsored by Brookworth Homes, had won the toss but put Sunbury in to bat, influenced no doubt by reports of possible rain later in the day and the possibility, thus, of a run chase to victory, which is exactly what happened.
Before the game started Sunbury’s South African Test player, Dane Vilas, stepped down from the team amid rumours he had been signed by a county team.
Old stagers John Maunders, formerly of Middlesex and Leicestershire, and Adam London, also once of Middlesex, found the going slow when they opened the Sunbury innings as both Will Hodson and Andy Delmont restricted one of the strongest opening pairs of batsmen in the league to just 21 runs in the first 10 overs. Delmont bowled five maiden overs in his first seven overs, which cost just seven runs.
After 17 overs, this pair had put 51 runs on the board. However, the introduction of Stevens into the attack brought immediate results when the Priory paceman picked off a stunning caught and bowled chance from Maunders on 29, diving forward to pick up the ball in his left-hand.
In Stevens’s second over, Mesome Hussain who was substituting for the absent Vilas, nicked one to Oliver at slip. In Stevens’s third over Oliver took the catch again as the dangerous Sam Burgess was out for a third ball duck.
Sunbury, 51-0 at the drinks interval, now were 61-3, with all three wickets going to Stevens.
Nathaniel Gregory, the former Portsmouth University captain and all-rounder, now joined Adam London for a stand that was eventually worth 57 runs before Beaven, in his sixth over, had London caught by Hairs for 29.
Beaven now started work breaking down Sunbury’s middle order. Rhythm Bedi, Sunbury’s number six batsman, was caught behind by Burgess for 15 at 134-5. Amar Virdi was stumped by Burgess for nought in Beaven’s next over at 136-6 before Stevens, now in his 12th over, bowled Gregory with a ball that kept low, the off stump hurtling out of the ground towards wicket-keeper Burgess.
Hodson took over from Stevens at the Blue Anchor end and induced an edge from number nine batsman Kevin Smith for Beaven to take a diving catch in the gully. A few runs later Hodson combined to run out Ishwarjot Sohi for 23 and number 11 batsman Adam Stanier fell leg before to Beaven for 1 to end the innings at 172.
When Reigate came out to bat with an allotted 60 overs to get the required 173 runs for victory, Oli Hairs was out to the second ball of the innings, caught at mid-on off Smith for a golden duck.
However Oliver and Murtagh soon repaired the damage. After 10 overs, when Sunbury had 21 runs on the board, Reigate already had the first 50 up. And as the clouds gathered and blackened overhead, Oliver and Murtagh kept up the rapid pace of scoring, reaching 108-1 off 24 overs, a rate of 4.5 runs per over, with Oliver now on 47 not out and Murtagh on 54 not out, before the umpires called the players off the pitch because of bad light and rain.
As the light improved and the rain slackened, barrack-room umpires from both sides tried to impress upon the real umpires, Matt Johnson and John Flatley, the reasons why they should either go back on the pitch straight away (the Reigate view) or delay the game further (the Sunbury view).
Jonson and Flatlery, in unflappable mode, decided to resume play at 18:54, with the loss of 50 minutes of play reducing the number of overs Reigate had left to score the remaining 65 runs for victory from 36 overs to 22.
Oliver and Murtagh upped the tempo of batting, scoring 38 runs in the following four overs. Oliver was caught at deep mid-wicket for 65 off Sohi’s bowling at 143-2 and three runs later at 146-2 from 28 overs, the umpires came off again as light drizzle turned into more persistent and heavy rain.
This time the players were off for 37 minutes as the discussions continued as to whether play should be resumed or not. When it did resume at 19:55, Reigate was allotted until 20:15 or a minimum eight overs to score the 27 runs needed.
In the first of these eight over, bowled by Smith, Murtagh and Cachopa between them could score only four singles. But in Sohi’s over, the pair tucked in, taking 19 runs off the over, Cachopa scoring a four and a six before Murtagh chipped in with his own boundary.
Six runs off the first three balls of Smith’s next over was all that was needed as the Priory revelled in a memorable win. The team had beaten both its arch rival as well as the elements, scoring the last 67 runs in just 6.3 overs.
With six wins from six games, Reigate now has 128 points, with Sunbury in second place on 105 points. Normandy is in third place with 93 points.
The Priory faces another tough challenge this coming Saturday when Weybridge come to call together with Reigate’s nemesis from last season, South African professional Sarel Erwee, who scored 145 against the Llamas in July at Park Lane and another 111 in August at the Weybridge ground.
Reigate’s win sees them well represented both in the league 1st XI batting and bowling averages.
For bowling Beaven currently tops the wicket-takers in the Surrey Championship Premier Division 1st XI with 16 wickets. Delmont is in 9th place with 11 wickets, Hodson in 15th place with 10 and Stevens in 17th place with 9.
Likewise in the batting averages for the league, Oliver is in second place with an average of 72.00 runs, Murtagh is in 5th place with an average of 59.00, the injured Brad Scriven is in 8th place with 54.00 and Burgess in 11th place with 50.67.