Llamas wide of the mark

A visit to our Banstead neighbours saw the Llamas hoping to build on last week’s opening victory.
Banstead won the toss and chose to bat.

Ollie T opened the bowling and got a wicket with his 4th ball, bowling opener Paul Leary for a duck (0-1).
After last week’s excellent bowling from Ben Donovan, the Llamas were hoping for the same again but were soon to be frustrated as Ben pulled a groin muscle with his 1st ball and struggled through 3 overs before calling it a day.
Skipper Galer would have problems covering the other 7 overs.

Nick Rotsey replaced Ben. Nick’s usually reliable radar was sadly missing today and his 6 overs were to cost him 35 runs including 15 wides.
Mobeen Tahir replaced Ollie (1st 6 overs 1-19) and Luke Haughton replaced Nick Rotsey as Galer tried to get the 2nd wicket.
Mobeen duly did the honours in his 2nd over having the opener George Chesser, who had laboured his way to 9, caught by Henry Tye with the score now 58-2 in the 15th over.

Banstead made steady rather than rapid progress with some solid hits from Harawal Wassam before Luke Haughton caught and bowled the Banstead captain Josh Stainer for 19 in the 22nd over (98-3).
Drinks at 25 saw the score at 110-3 which became 129-3 after 30.

The Banstead innings began to gain some momentum which was briefly curtailed as Luke got his 2nd wicket having Mohammad Shahid (15) caught by brother Rory, 160-4 in the 34th over.
Harawal Wassam was meanwhile playing some attractive boundary shots and moved to a deserved 100 in the 40th over.

Max Coyle, who had replaced Mobeen (10 overs 3 for 32), got Wassam (109) caught and bowled (score 223-5 in the 43rd over) and this was the Llamas last success as Michael Condie raced to his 50 and together with Tom Pitchley (25) saw Banstead finish their 50 overs on 283-5.
Banstead had scored 154 runs in the last 20 overs.
Their innings of 283 included 49 extras of which 35 were wides.
Ollie (1-37 from his 10) and Mobeen (1-32 from his 10) were the pick of the bowlers.

If the Llamas were to chase down 283 they would need a fast start and that is exactly what they got from Ali Raja and Jonathan Smith.
They both set about the Banstead opening bowlers with some powerful shots, delightful cuts from Ali and some classy straight driving from Jon in particular.
They raced to 78 when in the 11th over Ali was bowled for 50 by a slower ball from 1st change bowler Michael Condie.
Luke Haughton replaced Ali Raja but became Michael Condie’s 2nd victim when Luke was caught for 6 (score 87-2 in the 15th over).

Rory, who deserved a bit of Karma after taking one for the team in giving himself up in last week’s run out mix up when both batsmen were at the same end, didn’t get his just deserts as the sound of bat didn’t save him from being given out lbw off Joshua Gillam for his 2nd duck of the season. Score 91-3 in the 16th over.

Henry Tye who had quickly moved to 14 suffered the same fate as Rory when another sound of bat equally didn’t save Henry from an lbw –score 128-4 in the 24th over.

Galer joined Smudger with the target of another 156 in 26 overs –a run a ball.
Ten overs later with both the Jon’s scoring well, the score had moved on to172 when Smudger (now on 75) smashed Banstead’s colt Christen Rudrigo to Michael Condie to become the 5th wicket to fall.
With 16 overs and 5 wickets left and another 112 runs to get, the target was up to 7 an over.

Max Coyle joined Galer before he was stumped for 11. Score 198-6 in the 40th over.

Nick Rotsey came and left 1st ball when he too hit Christen Rudrigo straight to Michael Condie who took his 2nd catch. Score now 198-7 and 200 for 7 at the end of the 40th over.
10 overs left to get 83 and the run rate steadily climbing from 6 to 7 and now 8.

Ollie joined Galer and Jon kept us in the hunt with big hits around the ground and a few (too many for Jon’s liking ?) two’s. At 225 in the 44th over Ollie (6) became the 8th wicket to fall when he became the 3rd victim of the Michael Condie and Christen Rudrigo combination and all were caught in much the same position between mid on and mid wicket.

At 49 off the last 6 overs the asking rate was still 8’s.
With number 10 Mobeen now joining Galer the Llamas had to take risks and Jon continued to score quickly to reach a well earned 50. He took his own score onto 68 before he was bowled by Joshua Gillam with the score now 255-9 in the 48th over.

With 29 runs to win and only 2 overs left, Jon’s dismissal saw our chances disappear as a limping Ben Donovan (with an exhausted Galer as his runner) joined Mobeen.
Mobeen had one final fling before he hit one to deep mid wicket to see us all out for 255 to give Banstead a 28 run victory which was all but the difference between the extras with the Llamas bowling 49 extras and Banstead bowling 22.