Match Report: NECC vs Woldingham

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It was time for the first game of the season and we had a trip to Woldingham’s lovely ground. It was a strange week as we had 10 for a while, had 9 on Saturday afternoon and somehow on Sunday morning we found ourselves with 11 players ready to go.

It was obvious that both teams were looking to bat first, The toss went the way of Woldingham’s and they opened the batting. Aidan and new opening Bowler Josh got us off to a solid start keeping the runs down and Josh picking up his first wicket for the club. 

At drinks we were in a good position with the run rate down, due to some good bowling and excellent fielding in particular from Ed, Lee and Jez.

Toward the end of their innings they picked up the rate to score some quicker runs but this allowed for some wickets, two going to Gideon in his first game for the club and Aaron also picking up one to open his account for the season. Woldingham finished on 196 and while this was a gettable target it left some disappointment that we let the innings start getting away from us slightly. 

After Tea it was our turn to bat and just as it seemed that the game may have gotten away from us, Luke and Ed proved that to be not the case very quickly and they found themselves on 40-0 after six overs. Both playing some great shots off some interesting opening bowling… They both looked set to stay the distance until Ed decided he didn’t fancy it anymore and tried to slog one over cow corner and sliced it to the fielders hand. 

Jez then came in and got a ball that didn’t decide to bounce. Luke and Raj then helped to rebuild and Luke reached his second 50 for the club in double quick time and went on to make a brilliant 82 before he decided to leave one on middle. Raj also batted to his 50, this was in doubt when he was on 49 and was asking if anyone else wanted a bat and he would retire… On 49?! 

We got over the line with a big 6 from Aaron with plenty of overs to spare and plenty of batsmen looking in good form. Overall, it was a good team performance with good batting, bowling and fielding, the perfect way to start the season. 

Player of the Match goes undoubtedly to Luke for a fine knock of 82, looking in great touch and at one point a certainty for a century. He will have to wait until next week for that now. He also looked solid behind the stumps. 

However, there were great team performances all round and definitely something to build on to start the season. Next week is the turn for our first home game and I can only hope that the pitch is in a better state than it was the weekend just gone…

Scorecard

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