Won
| Batsmen | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Richards | Out | 103 | ||||
| Gary Phillips | Out | 4 | ||||
| Ian Boyton | Out | 64 | ||||
| Wade Johnston | Not Out | 27 | ||||
| Richard Harris | Out | 22 | ||||
| Andy Sumner | DNB | |||||
| Duncan Parr | DNB | |||||
| George Troughton | DNB | |||||
| Abbas Ghulam | DNB | |||||
| Nigel Jackson | DNB | |||||
| Extras | ||||||
| Bowling | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Economy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Boyton | 8.0 | 0 | 33 | 4 | 4.13 | |
| Wade Johnston | 12.0 | 1 | 44 | 1 | 3.67 | |
| Duncan Parr | 1.0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.00 | |
| George Troughton | 5.0 | 1 | 27 | 0 | 5.40 | |
| Abbas Ghulam | 15.0 | 3 | 57 | 5 | 3.80 | |
| Nigel Jackson | 3.0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 3.33 | |
| Extras | ||||||
| Fielder | Catches | Run Outs | Stumpings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Richards | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Ian Boyton | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Andy Sumner | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Abbas Ghulam | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Sonning welcomed Newbury to King Georges Field looking to repeat the victory over Burnham the previous week with a stronger bowling attack than in that game with Ghulam Abbas and George Troughton available. On winning the toss, Newbury inserted Sonning, which was looking like a good decision when skipper Phillips was out LBW early on and Mark Richards and Ian Boyton toiled against good, accurate bowling on a wicket with plenty of encouragement for the bowlers from the overnight rain. Whilst last weeks century from Richards was spectacular, the one he went on to score this week was more valuable to the team as he and Boyton assessed the situation well, battling away at 3 an over but wearing down the bowlers and overcoming the worst of the wicket. When Boyton was eventually out for an invaluable 64 , it allowed Aussie Wade Johnston to come in and show off his usual combination of power hitting and lightning running between the wickets. As Richards passed the century mark he eventually lost concentration and was out for 103, his 50th century in all forms of cricket – some achievement for the “Village idiot !� This allowed JJ Harris to come in and smack the ball around from his first ball , including one large 6 and when he was out Pete Whitmore came in to continue the assault. The outcome was that Sonning reached 264 for 4 in their 52 overs, a target which seemed unlikely at the start.
The Newbury innings began well for Sonning with “The Bath Road Express� back to his best, removing one of the openers, but then a couple of good partnerships ensued which whilst always behind the required run rate made it look like Sonning would struggle to win the game. However the introduction of Ian Boyton’s off spin turned the game. He took 4 wickets for 33 runs as well as taking 2 catches, one of which was outstanding, and with Abbas taking 5 wickets, it was left to Johnston to take the final wicket to bowl Newbury out for 175 with 4 overs remaining. Andy “Stumpy� Sumner was excellent behind the stumps, but all agreed that as well as buying new keeping gloves over the winter to protect his battered fingers, he could also have done with buying some larger trousers to keep his hairy a*$e out of the slips eyeline !
This was a terrific allround performance with good, sensible batting followed by power hitting, good bowling and much improved fielding against a team that nearly got promoted from this league last year.
JJ Harris
