Lame Llamas Lost to Dons

Ahson Bukhari writes...

Llama 3s took to the field with all the right spirits and a few concerns about the uncut outfield. The wicket appeared quite decent for early season with help for both bat and ball. Wimbledon won the toss and opted to bat first.
Llamas’ bowling seemed a bit rusty. Steven Cross provided the first break through with Michael Ramsdon holding on to a skyer. Wimbledon however continued to score rather freely as the wicket provided plenty of time to play short pitched stuff.
It took a remarkable spell from Jake Rowe to pull things back sharply. He capped an early scalp but Wimbledon quickly seemed to realise to block him out. Jake finished his spell with excellent figures of 10 overs with 2 for 20. Complimented nicely by Rory Haughton from the other end the spin duo did well, Rory bagging a scalp as well.
Ross McInley bowled well giving away just 18 off his 5 overs. With the exception of Jake Rowe and Ross McInley, Wimbledon were however able to score freely off of the other bowlers. Toby Briggs was brought back on and got 2 quick wickets. Brickers took over from Ross McInley and bowled impressively for his 4 wickets.
JB's lightning reflexes caught the non- striker off guard triggering a team hat-trick as Brickers bowled a couple of peaches to take two wickets of the next two deliveries. He missed out on a personal hat-trick however as JB couldn't quite latch on to a rather sharp one at midwicket (very diplomatic Ash – Ed).
The play of the day probably goes to the last wicket when Brickers hit the pads of the last man and as he turned around to get back to his run up without even having thought of an appeal, was pleasantly surprised to see the umpire's finger raised in his favour. The Wimbledon innings wrapped up at 198.
The Llamas started the chase with rather high spirits but it soon appeared that the theme of the day for the Llama 3s would be unforced errors. Following up on 28 wides bowled in the first innings, the Llamas failed to get a partnership going. With Rory Haughton back in the hut early in the piece leg before, Ahson Bukhari and John looked to steady the ship when John was bowled to an absolute ripper of a delivery! Probably the only one that did so much off the wicket cutting back in
sharply through the gate and just clipping the leg stump bail.
To be fair, Wimbledon did not offer too many scoring opportunities and with the uncut outfield the Llamas found it tough to get the score board ticking. Ahson looked good for a bit but soon chipped one straight to mid off trying to go overhead and push the field back a bit.
Antony Ireland (41) was the only one who managed to bat freely and took the attack to the opposition. With some nicely timed strokes he was able to get things going until he succumbed to the temptation of hitting a half tracker to the next postcode, nicely timing one straight to deep midwicket.
Wickets continued to tumble at regular intervals there on in. Some late resistance from Ross (16), Toby (13) and Brickers (one scoring shot – Ed) proved to be too little too late and the Llama 3s innings wrapped up with JB’s run out, with the Llamas all out for 132.