Match Report
Captains Report Home 25th May versus Wyre Foresters
Back home after the comfortable win over our near neighbours Astwood Bank the weather gods were on fine form as the Croft ground was bathed in luxurious sunshine.
Team for the day saw five changes from last week’s team with Messrs “Apples Jr”, Brunt, Towner, Kehoe and Ness returning to the bosom of the 2’s.
Avoncroft lost the toss and were invited by the opposition to bat first, proving to be a bonus for the Croft as the opening bowling lacked both penetration and consistency. Apples Jr and Brunt soon took advantage, dispatching some wayward bowling to all parts of the ground as the score raced to 80 of the first 10 overs.
Brunt by now had got his dander up and hopped down the track to dispatch the bowler into the next field however the capricious finger of fate was pointing towards the latter and Brunt was left stranded, stumped for an entertaining 26.
Wood, elevated to number 3, was the next man in and soon hit the ground running, dovetailing nicely with Apples Jr at the other end. The pair added a bright 37 before Apples Jr misjudged a sweep shot and was trapped LBW for 43.
VC Whitehead swaggered to the crease and immediately signaled his intent, biffing a ball straight down the ground and quickly accelerated through the gears as he bludgeoned the bowling with powerful sweeps and straight drives. Wood was also playing with a certain élan punishing the bad ball and rotating the strike and at drinks the pair had moved the score on to 183 for the loss of two wickets.
The pair continued to chastise the attack however with the score at 213 Whitehead aimed to dispatch the bowler into the next county, missed and the bowler hit, castling Whitehead for 47.
Wood was now joined by Towner who picked up where Whitehead left off powerfully pulling of the back foot for a succession of 4’s and 6’s. The pair had added a further 59 when Wood mistimed a sweep shot and was caught at deep square 7 runs short of his century.
The score now was 275 for 4 and was soon to change to 287 for 6 as wickets started to fall with Towner (29) and Prudhoe going in quick succession. Kehoe played an entertaining cameo innings reaching 20 helping to move the score up to 300 before he fell and the innings finally closed out for 311 all out.
In reply Wyre Foresters innings started disastrously. Whitehead and Towner bowling well in tandem effectively closed out the match in their first spells reducing the opposition to 22 for 5 from the first 12 overs. The first change bowlers of Wilkes and Ward continued to turn the screw with the former snaffling a couple of wickets to reduce Wyre Foresters now to 62 for 7.
The closing of the innings was done firstly by Pittam and then Whitehead who removed the final wickets to leave the opposition stranded on 87 all out, a huge 224 run victory!!
Overall a great team performance with significant contributions from both the bowling and batting departments. Next week’s fixture takes the team to Birlingham, which is envisaged to be a far stronger test for the team. Onward and Upward !!
Match Report by Mark Wood, 28/05/2019
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