Mo's fifty not enough

 HTCC 168-9 (50.0 Overs) Clarendon 170-4 (40.0 Overs)

Not a bad batting performance against a good bowling attack, on a bouncy track, with plenty of early movement, which became a bit up and down as our innings went on. Kev and I put on a reasonable opening stand of around 50, but unfortunately both of us got out within an over and Pete didn’t last long either – Things started to look better with Taffy and Mo, but then Taff succumbed to a bit of late away swing and it was left to Mo to salvage the innings – which he did with a fine attacking 50, with good support from new boy Alex. And a late partnership with Patrick and Reolf started to move us towards what should have been par for the course, however a flurry of wickets and being one short due to a last minute drop out,  left us probably 20 short if we had our regular bowlers – however without three of our 5 bowlers and the other two having a bit of an off day, it was never going to be enough.

 In fact our bowling was poor on a helpful wicket and Clarendon really had no trouble reaching their target. Fortunately a flurry of late wickets helped our points tally.

 Looking at Saturdays team apart from being one short, we effectively had 4 new players (3 of them new to the club and the other a youngster). Although they had all played cricket before, there was rust and nerves on show – but also there was obvious potential. Justin our 17 year old draftee into the team was the pick of our bowlers and claimed 3 wickets, with accurate line, length and late away swing. Alex and Roelf both showed ability with bat and ball, but struggled with bowling rhythm – Roelf claimed his first league wicket for the club with a cracking delivery. Shuaib had played two games for us last year, but hadn’t played or practised since then, so I didn’t bring him onto bowl till quite late  in the game - understandably he struggled a bit, but bowled well enough in the circumstances

 Looking forward to the next weeks, I’m hoping that we can build on what is becoming a settled top 5 batting order by one of these players going on and making a three figured score and also see someone grab hold of the number 6 slot, to make it there own. With regards to the bowling I’m hoping that we will see some of our experienced seamers return to the fold and the team put in much tighter bowling performances. And in general I’m hopeful that one or two of our new players can make that breakthrough performance to help establish themselves in the team