Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday v Eversley III on Sat 08 Jul 2006 at 1.30pm
Match was Drawn

Match report Thatcham Town 3rd XI played host to Eversley 3rd XI at Henwick Sportsground last Saturday. Both teams were pleased to see temperatures had cooled from previous weeks and with that, the Eversley captain won the toss and decided to field first.

Thatcham opened with Paul Sharp and Dave Taylor, fresh from his 99 run innings in the 4's last week. It was obvious from the first over that the ball would swing in the overcast conditions and it didn't take long for the bowler friendly conditions to pay off for Eversley, Dave Taylor being bowled for a duck in the second over. With the Thatcham batting line up missing a few of it's regular faces, this early setback was the last thing they needed. Nick Stewart, following his fine 33 last week, saw himself promoted up the order to number three for Thatcham and joined Sharp at a testing time. The score barely ticked over, with only 15 runs coming from the first 13 overs.

An injection of pace then was provided by Nick Stewart, who began to play some fluent cover drives, scoring a succession of 2's and Sharp pushing singles at the other end. With the score rate approaching 2 an over, 45 in the 23rd over, Nick Stewart found himself tamely caught at backward point for 25, disappointed to get out after playing well. Ravi Mirchandani, in only his second game of the season for Thatcham came in at 4 and immediately looked to get after the bowling and increase the run rate, smashing 3 fours in the 25th over, taking the score passed 50. With Sharp still finding scoring difficult, it was clear that Mirchandani had to take the bull by the horns and take the attack to Eversley. Mirchandani pulled and drove with confidence and skill, taking the score to 100 in the 35th over. Sharp was unfortunately then bowled for a dogged 26 in the same over.

Nick Voller joined Mirchandani at the crease, coming in at number 5 and playing his usual role of nurdeler. He sensibly fed the strike wherever possible to his partner. The pair put on 59 in only 9 overs for the 4th wicket, before Mirchandani miss timed a slower ball and was caught at mid-wicket for a crucial 79. Darren Sopp came in at six to join Voller, only to see his partner also disappointingly caught for 18 at cover. With Steve Bartholomew in at seven, in the 45th over and the score on 165, this pair needed to take the score beyond 200 and would need to bat aggressively and run well between the wickets.

They set about their task with gusto, both batsmen pushing singles regularly and hitting what few bad balls they faced for four. The score was pushed up to 197-5 with the last over to be bowled. Steve Bartholomew drove straight for 2 off the first ball of the over, before pulling powerfully for 4 off the second the take the total past 200. With the score on 205 with 1 ball remaining, Bartholomew pushed the ball wide of mid-on, quickly scampering to the other end, then knowing it was the last ball of the innings, Darren Sopp called his partner back for the second. Sopp was running to the danger end and was selflessly run out for 26. Bartholomew finished on 20 not out, with the Thatcham total of 206-6. Tony Critchley was the pick of the Eversley bowlers, with figures of 14-3-2-50.

After the tea break, Thatcham took to the field and hoped to enjoy the early movement with the ball they had had to face. It proved to be the case, as Nick Voller and Will Clarke opened the bowling for Thatcham and moved the ball both ways, passing the edge numerous times. Voller got one to come back in sharply in his second over and bowled the Eversley opener, Gallagher, for 2 and with the score on 3-1. Even with this early break through, the Thatcham men weren't over confident, remembering how well they had recovered earlier in the day.

With Voller bowling accurately and Clarke bowling with good pace, the Eversley run rate failed to accelerate, scoring only 27 in the first 12 overs. Clarke finished his first spell with good figures of 6-3-16-0, confirming that he could well turn out to be one of the finds of the season for Thatcham. The Thatcham skipper Gavin Ansell brought himself on to replace Clarke. Both Voller and Ansell bowled tightly, with the exception of one of Ansell's overs going for 10. In the 17th over and with the Eversley score now on 47, Voller struck again, trapping the Eversley number three, Rob Tappin for 15.

With Ansell struggling to find penetration (5-0-18-0), he brought himself off to be replaced by the left arm spin of Jon Sabberton, who immediately found his rhythm and challenged the batsmen with every ball. Nick Voller finished his fine spell shortly afterwards, finishing with fine figures of 12-4-2-19. The ever youthful Tony Wimbush came on to replace Voller with his off-spin, he saw his first over go for only 1 run, matching Sabberton in his miserly bowling. The Eversley number four, Jeremy Hammond, after playing dead bat, then opened his shoulders against Wimbush and hit him for 14 of his second over, all hit to the leg side. With the field now adjusted to combat this, the run rate once again slowed.

The Eversley score had climbed to 93 at the end of the 31st over and with wickets in hand, they must have thought of beginning to mount a challenge to the Thatcham total. Sabberton had other ideas though, first bowling the Eversley opener, Chris Last, for 31 and then bowling the Eversley skipper, Ken Ryder for only 2 in the same over. Sabberton again struck in his next over, trapping Hammond LBW for 22. The Eversley total now on 96-5, and with the distinctly youthful pairing of Seb Powers and Matthew Martin in at six and seven, Eversley decided to shut up shop and concentrate on not losing wickets, rather than trying to win the game. This appeared to be an odd decision, considering their position in the league, and the modest Thatcham total.

The spin of Sabberton and Wimbush was being ably played by the young pair, both playing with resolute forward defences. So in the 37th over, the young opening bowler, Will Clarke, came back for a second spell, joined by Ravi Mirchandani's medium pace at the other end. They both went through 2 overs a piece, Clarke only going for 2 runs from his, finishing with excellent figures of 8-4-16-0, unlucky not to make an impression on the wickets column. Ravi bowled well, but found himself stiff from his earlier batting exertion, bowling 2-0-11-0. The spinners had to come back for Thatcham, the Eversley score now on 114-5 after 40 overs.

With there being little to no chance of the Eversley men reaching the Thatcham total, Thatcham could afford to crowd the batsmen. This ofcourse meant there were runs available to the batsmen, should they chose to play any shots. They remained resolute in defence though, until Wimbush took the 6th Eversley wicket, Voller taking a regulation catch at extra cover, catching Martin for 21. Nigel Cresswell joined Powers at the crease and the pair saw out the remaining couple of overs, defending everything. Sabberton, again in the wickets, finished with figures of 11-2-3-25. Wimbush returned with impressive figures of 10-2-1-31. The Eversley total closed on 131-6, meaning the game was drawn.

Thatcham had expected this to mean they would slip a place in division 6B of the Thames Valley League, only picking up 13 points from a possible 25. However, with other top teams all drawing and picking up fewer points, Thatcham Town 3's find themselves at the top of the table on 149 points at the halfway stage of the season. They're only 2 points clear of joint second Teddington Town 2's and Kew 3's, with Datchet 3's further back on 133 points in forth. With Thatcham playing hosts, at Henwick Sportsground, to bottom of the table Stoke Green next Saturday, they will look to score big points prior to playing the other top teams in the following weeks.

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
206		        
Paul Sharp Bowled  26
David Taylor Bowled  0
Nik Stewart Caught  25
Ravi Mirchandani Caught  79
Nick Voller Caught  18 1
Darren Sopp Run out  24
Steve Bartholomew Not Out  20
Tony Wimbush  
Will Clarke  
Gavin Ansell  
Jon Sabberton  

Eversley III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Eversley III Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
131 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 3XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nick Voller12.041929.501.58
Will Clarke8.041600.002.00
Gavin Ansell5.001800.003.60
Jon Sabberton11.022538.332.27
Tony Wimbush10.0231131.003.10
Ravi Mirchandani2.001100.005.50