Draw
| Batsmen | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lj Brown | Out | 33 | ||||
| Jason Dance | Out | 18 | ||||
| Duncan Parr | Out | 46 | ||||
| Tim Atkins | Out | 25 | ||||
| Richard Harris | Out | 50 | ||||
| James Ford | Out | 18 | ||||
| Abbas Ghulam | Out | 1 | ||||
| Adeel Razaq | Not Out | 40 | ||||
| Steve Roberts | Not Out | 4 | ||||
| James Reilly | DNB | |||||
| Gary Phillips | DNB | |||||
| Extras | ||||||
| Bowling | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Economy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lj Brown | 5.0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 1.40 | |
| Duncan Parr | 15.0 | 8 | 24 | 5 | 1.60 | |
| Abbas Ghulam | 16.0 | 2 | 54 | 0 | 3.38 | |
| Adeel Razaq | 8.0 | 0 | 31 | 2 | 3.88 | |
| Steve Roberts | 3.0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1.67 | |
| Extras | ||||||
| Fielder | Catches | Run Outs | Stumpings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abbas Ghulam | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Steve Roberts | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| James Reilly | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Gary Phillips | 1 | 0 | 0 |
After the previous weeks thrashing by Wokingham, Sonning welcomed Falkland 2nds hoping for an improved performance. They were pleased to have Abbas back and also welcomed Jason Dance, who had been scoring runs and taking wickets for the seconds and also veteran Welshman Steve Roberts. The day started well with Skipper Phillips winning the toss and choosing to bat. Falkland had a sharp opening bowler, but Aussie LJ Brown was making batting look easy, and Jason Dance was also hanging in well, keeping out the good balls and dispatching some bad ones. Unfortunately Brown got over-confident and nicked a wide one, and when Dance, who had done all the hard work, patted a half-tracker to cover, Sonning were 57 for 2. A seventy run partnership ensued between Duncan Parr, who has been in good form all season, and Tim Atkins, who was starting to come into form despite his headache from over imbibing the previous evening. As so often happens, when Atkins was out stumped, Parr soon followed for a well made 46. This brought together vice captain JJ Harris and James Ford, who had both been struggling for runs in the last few games. Harris decided to hit his way into form and hit some lusty blows in his 50, while Ford started very cautiously, gradually starting to increase his rate, and looked like he could score some good runs when he holed out to deep mid-wicket. This brought Adeel Razaq to the wicket. He was confident after his rear-guard action last week, but today he went on the attack and blitzed the bowling to all parts, hitting 40 runs with 3 fours and 3 sixes off only 23 balls. If only he could keep his mouth shut!! This gave Sonning a very competitive 252 off their 52 overs.
With rain clouds looming, the Falkland innings started well for Sonning with Adeel trapping the previous weeks centurion Ettridge LBW (a bit dodgy!) and then getting the number 3 out caught behind. His opening spell of 7 overs taking 2 for 27 was Adeel’s best spell of the season. With Abbas bowling steadily from one end, Duncan Parr began ripping the heart out of the Falkland innings with his famous gravity balls, which they kept hitting in the air! Unfortunately a long rain delay took the oomph out of the game, and when play resumed, Falkland had one thing on their mind – survival. Only 67 runs were scored from the last 30 overs in a mind numbingly bore draw. This included LJ Brown bowling his first 4 overs without a run being scored, but star of the show for Sonning was Duncan Parr who bowled 15 overs, with 8 maidens taking 5 for 24.
This was a much improved performance, with everyone chipping in with the bat, the bowling (apart from Adeel’s over of spin!) and fielding looking much sharper. Now for top of the table Chesham next week – let’s pull a surprise win out of the bag!
JJ Harris
