Won
| Batsmen | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Richards | Not Out | 114 | ||||
| Gary Phillips | Out | 28 | ||||
| Ian Boyton | Out | 4 | ||||
| Wade Johnston | Not Out | 90 | ||||
| Scott Stevens | DNB | |||||
| Richard Harris | DNB | |||||
| Duncan Parr | DNB | |||||
| Nigel Jackson | DNB | |||||
| Dan White | DNB | |||||
| Phil Wilding | DNB | |||||
| Extras | ||||||
| Bowling | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Economy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Richards | 5.0 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 5.00 | |
| Ian Boyton | 15.0 | 0 | 71 | 0 | 4.73 | |
| Wade Johnston | 19.0 | 0 | 86 | 2 | 4.53 | |
| Duncan Parr | 6.0 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 4.83 | |
| Nigel Jackson | 4.0 | 0 | 25 | 1 | 6.25 | |
| Extras | ||||||
| Fielder | Catches | Run Outs | Stumpings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Boyton | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Duncan Parr | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Sonning’s first game in division 3A of the Thames Valley League was at the magnificent Burnham Cricket Club. New Aussie recruit Wade Johnston must have been impressed with the road of a wicket and lightning outfield. The team were batting heavy, with Abbas injured and were happy to win the toss and insert Burnham, who were recovering from their extensive warm up routine.
Johnston opened the bowling and with impressive pace and bounce had both openers in trouble, and he soon had 2 wickets, both caught at mid-Off. Mark “I’ll open the batting and the bowling� Richards, trundled in from the other end, but found the batting far too classy to give him their wicket. In fact the Burnham numbers 1 and 4 batted very well, both scoring centuries on a track giving the bowlers very little help, and an outfield that was lightning fast. A long Ian Boyton spell, while wicketless, was economical, but the next wicket fell to young paceman Nigel Jackson. Burnham seemed to be heading towards 300, and Sonning were very surprised that they declared on 254 for three , 3 overs before the end of their allotted 52.
A very vociferous welcome for Richards and Skipper Phillips to the wicket was very quickly silenced when Richards despatched the first 2 balls of the innings to the boundary. Immediately the Burnham faces looked worried as they realised they were not simply going to run through the batting line up. Phillips was scoring quickly too as Burnham continually dropped the ball short to his favourite pull shot, and despite losing 2 quick wickets sonning were always ahead of the run rate. In fact when Johnston joined Richards at the wicket, the combination of brutal hitting and rapid running (despite Richards blisters from his high heels!) meant that Sonning reached their target in only 31.5 overs with Richards unbeaten on 114 and Johnston on 90.
An extremely cocky Burnham were thoroughly humiliated and this result has surely sent a message to the rest of the league that again Sonning will be challenging for honours. However they will need to tighten up their fielding and excuses such as “I lost the ball in the red brick pavilion� will not be good enough in future!
JJ Harris
