Club Statistics
Match Summary: vs. Merton, Sunday, 29 Jul 2007
Ground: John Innes Rec.
Captain: Andrew Wingfield
Match type: Friendly
Toss: Merton elected to field
Weather: Cloudy, damp pitch
Opposition: Merton scored: 138 all out (38.2 overs)
Exiles Score: 149 for 7 (40 overs)
Result: Won by 11 runs
Man of the match: Naren Patel 8-3-9-1

Batsmen | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Keith Roberts | ct. | 36 | 84 | 1 | 0 |
2 | Quentin Davies | b. | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
3 | Amil Patel (W) | ct. | 5 | 28 | 0 | 0 |
4 | Mark Bradshaw | ct. | 35 | 73 | 1 | 0 |
5 | Wil Scott | ct. | 20 | 19 | 1 | 0 |
6 | Jasper Searle | ct. | 11 | 12 | 0 | 1 |
7 | Simon Gundry | b. | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
8 | Andrew Wingfield (C) | not out | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
9 | John Tither | not out | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
10 | Phil Chamberlain | dnb | ||||
11 | Naren Patel | dnb | ||||
Extra(s) 11w 13b 2lb | 26 | |||||
149 | 240 |
Bowler | O | M | R | W | Avg | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Andrew Wingfield | 8.0 | 3 | 26 | 1 | 26 |
2 | Phil Chamberlain | 8.0 | 1 | 39 | 2 | 19.5 |
3 | Naren Patel | 8.0 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 9 |
4 | Simon Gundry | 7.2 | 1 | 36 | 2 | 18 |
5 | John Tither | 7.0 | 4 | 18 | 1 | 18 |
Player | Catch | Run Out | Stumping | Penalty |
---|---|---|---|---|
Keith Roberts | 2 | |||
Amil Patel (W) | 2 | |||
Simon Gundry | 2 | |||
John Tither | 1 |
Despite the rare sunshine, the Exiles faced the prospect of batting first on another damp pitch. Understandably, there were a few nerves after a run of poor scores on wet pitches. Indeed the Exiles had generally struggled against Merton/North Croydon away from home especially when asked to bat first on wet pitches at the John Innes ground in the past.
Thankfully, the pitch was not quite as difficult to bat on as predicted although there was some movement and the ball did hold up a bit. To avoid the pitfalls of the pitch, Quentin decided to miss a straight yorker and was out in the third over. Amil came in to join Keith, who was being watched by the entire family, all kitted out in matching three quarter length trousers. The Exiles made a steady start against some tight bowling and keen fielding and looked reasonably comfortable.
The introduction of the leg spinner brought Amil's demise. This brought the return from injury of Mark after the most talked about metatarsul injury since Rooney at the World Cup. Mark quickly settled in against some good quality spin from both ends and the Roberts-Bradshaw combination brought back a look of solidity to the Exiles line up. Some sensible batting saw off any possibility of an early collapse. The slow outfield and excellent fielding meant that it was unlikely to be a high scoring game and both Keith and Mark were out in their mid-thirties trying to force the score along. The fast over rate by Merton suddenly meant that we needed to get 70-80 runs off the last ten overs to post a competitive total.
Will and Jasper both batted really well. Will had very few dot balls in his 20 and Japser hit a superb six over long off. Both sacrificed their wickets as the score was pushed well over a hundred. Simon was dismissed by a metaphorical "Chinaman" that had been delivered almost 12 hours earlier. John and Andy were left not out as the Exiles had successfully got their total up to 149 and gave us something to bowl at.
Andy and Phil opened the bowling and kept things tidy as Merton looked to make a positive start. Phil made an early breakthrough in dismissing one of the openers. Merton then made progress and were above the required run rate after 12-13 overs. Naren came on first change while Andy bowled his eight overs straight through, taking one wicket in a tight spell and unlucky with a couple of chances that went down.
After the second wicket partnership was broken, the Exiles never let any of the partnerships to get going. Naren bowled a brilliant spell of bowling for only nine runs and one wicket. A couple of superb run outs from John and Simon resulted from the pressure that the bowlers were able to exert in the field with Jasper showing great "Energy" and Naren staying awake long enough to sprint 30 yards along the boundary at one point. John bowled superbly with one wicket and four maidens in his initial four over spell.
Wickets fell regularly with Simon picking up one and Phil another. It was looking very comfortable until the eighth wicket partnership came together and clawed their way back into the game. With only around 20 needed off the last 3 overs, it was looking worrying. With 13 needed off 2 overs and with one wicket left we were in trouble. Simon bowled the last batsman to ease the nerves and give the Exiles an excellent 11 run win against a very talented Merton side. It was a highly competitive and sporting fixture with no sign of any jelly bean based tantrums. Having said that, it would probably take a whole Battenburg cake on a length to upset an Exiles batsman.
Report By: Quentin Davies