Match Report: Sunbury 2's visit Park Lane

With the weather more suitable to the Women’s Football World Cup, the Llamas had their
own “Match of the Day” against visitors Sunbury.
Sunbury had their own availability problems and included 5 under 19’s in their line-up while
the Llamas; although youthful in appearance, fielded a more experienced line-up with
Manager Jonathan Gale rotating his squad with 6 changes from last week. Simon Brewis,
Nick Rotsey, Andrew Hook, Steve Cross, Elliott Lodge and Ollie Thilo were replaced by
Jonathan Smith, Rory Haughton, Henry Tye, Will Irving, Ben Donovan and Max Coyle.
Galer won the toss and with rain around he chose to bowl. Sunbury opener Sean Ventham
usually gets his runs in a hurry and today was no different as by the 6 th over he had 20 of the
1 st 24 runs when he left a straight one to give Toby Briggs the opening wicket. This was the
only ball to hit the stumps with the remaining 9 batsmen all being out caught. Fellow opener
Fabio Venezia (7) was next to go when in the 10 th over with the score on 33 over Fraser
McGuiness took an edge off Toby’s bowling.
Two of Sunbury’s U19’s then got a partnership underway. Ben Donovan who had frequently
threatened the edge and the stumps in his 8 overs was replaced in the 17 th over by Mobeen
Tahir who immediately took a wicket with Ben’s help when Ben caught Arunan
Sunthareeswaran (16) to leave Sunbury at 56-3. Sunbury skipper Harveer Mahajan (4) was
then caught by Rory Haughton to give Toby his 3 rd wicket. Score 75-4 in the 24 th over.
The Sunbury youngsters now had the task of posting a defendable total and U18 Jack
Greaves (15) hit 3 fours. Galer had plenty of spin options with Will Irving, Max Coyle and
Henry Tye to call on; but not for the first time this season (or this match) Galer’s bowling
changes brought immediate success when Luke Haughton got a wicket in his 1 st over (the 30 th)
with the score on 96 when he got the 5 th wicket to fall when he had Jack Greaves caught in
the slips by Henry Tye.
Fellow youngster U19 Ed Hughes had top scored with 28 when he was caught behind by
Fraser off Mobeen’s bowling to leave Sunbury wobbling at 98-6 1after 31 overs. U16
Pratyush Ramesh went for a duck when Toby took the catch to give Luke his 2 nd wicket on
100-7. Jai Ramchandani (4) then fell to an excellent diving catch at backward point by Jon
Smith to give, back in the attack, Ben Donovan a deserved wicket. 119-8 soon became 121-9
when U14 Subhan Ramzan, who had made a gritty 17, was caught by Ben off Luke’s
bowling. Mark Ventham was last to go caught by Smudger for Luke’s 4 th wicket to leave
Sunbury all out for 127 after 41.4 overs.
The wicket taking was shared with Luke 4-18 from 6.4 overs, Toby 3-38 from 14, Mobeen 2-
27 from 11 and Ben 1-42 from 10 overs.
The early finish to the innings caught the Tea Ladies by surprise and Tea wasn’t ready to be
taken so after a 10 minute break between innings for half time Oranges the Llamas had 58
overs to get 128 runs.

Jon Smith and Rory Haughton opened and Jon hit 2 fours in the 1 st over before Sunbury’s last
year’s 3 rd eleven bowlers James Birch (0-22 off 6 overs) and Mark Ventham (1-21 off 10
overs) posed a few problems. In the 10 th over, Rory (8) got an edge to a leg side delivery from
Mark Ventham to be caught by a diving catch from Sunbury’s keeper/captain Harveer
Mahajan. Score 26-1 in the 10 th over. Smithy who survived a dropped catch in the slips was
joined by Henry Tye and the pair proceeded to take charge before tea was taken after 15
overs with the Llamas on 41-1.
After the tea break Henry and Jon carried on when they left off with U14 Subhan Ramzan
going for 29 from his 4 overs and Jai Ramchandani going for 24 from his 3 overs. Henry,
who came to the wicket in the 10 th over, reached his 50 in the 28 th over before he fell for 61
lbw to U16 Pratyush Ramesh leg spinner (1-32 off 7 overs). Luke (3 no) joined Smudger (55
no) who went to his 50 before hitting the winning runs off the last ball of the 30 th over to give
the Llamas the 24 points.
No doubt Sunbury will provide a sterner test in the return fixture with the expected return of
some of their senior players but in the meantime the Llamas go to Sutton next week hoping to
progress from their current 3 rd place in the league 14 points off top placed Wimbledon.
Both sets of players stayed on the field during what thankfully remained only light rain and
unlike the football, and perhaps thankfully for the Umpire, VAR was not available.