Greys Green (H) – 4.9.10

Greys Green 116 all out
Zia 3-10, Main 1-7

RUASCC 117-4
Carpenter 34

RUASCC won by 6 wickets

RUASCC’s first home game of the season brought a very welcome win against visiting Greys Green thanks to a much improved bowling performance and, possibly not coincidentally, the return of Main and Zia to the starting eleven.

Tranter won the toss, as he does so frequently these days, and put Greys into bat on a hard, dry university pitch. Main opened up with a maiden before Withers was hit for three fours in his first over prompting thoughts among the fielders that this could be a long afternoon. Fortunately, improvement was imminent as Main and Withers shared five consecutive maidens with a wicket apiece (both openers clean bowled) to leave Greys struggling on 15-2 after the first half hour of play.

Greys worked hard to rebuild their innings and, with the help of a few edges and a few overthrows, formed a useful third wicket stand. Baker almost pulled off a terrific catch in the gully off Main, but he just couldn’t close his left hand around the ball and had to be content with saving a certain four. Main, whose nine-over spell brought him 1-7, and Withers (1-23) were replaced by Baker and Zia but success didn’t come immediately as the partnership passed fifty.

With the score on 71-2, Zia got the double breakthrough trapping Jenkins LBW for 28 and three balls later taking the prize wicket of Skilliter, bowled for a duck. A very important over this for RUASCC as the Greys captain has been known to score big runs in matches over the years. From here the innings never really got going again – another vital wicket came when danger man Shafqat was rapped on the pads and Umpire Sewell’s finger was up before Johnny Baker could turn round to appeal.

Zia clean bowled another to finish with 3-10 from his eight overs (what a difference he would have made at Stonor last week!) and RUASCC were in such a strong position that Captain Tranter felt able to bring himself and Ken Stewart on to mop up the tail. Stewart held onto a return catch from his third ball before Tranter’s straight, good-length delivery found a way through. Then despite a quick cameo from Dersh (4 not out) Stewart and Sewell combined to earn another LBW and end the Greys innings on 116.

RUASCC’s batting order was restored to normality this week as Stewart and Withers dropped back to numbers ten and eleven respectively. Ward and Eagle opened against some tight, wobbly bowling from Shafqat and Skilliter and made slow progress to 15-0 after eight overs. Not many more had been added when Eagle (11) chipped a low full toss back to the bowler and had to go.

The first bowling change saw the return of young leg-spinner Alex McKenzie who many of us remembered from Frieth where he took 2-30 and scored the winning runs. His first ball was short and Wardy pulled it over the rope for six to move to 15; his third ball was a full toss and Wardy pulled it straight to mid-wicket who caught it at something like the twelfth attempt. 31-2.

As with the Greys innings, it was the third wicket stand that steadied RUASCC’s reply. Carpenter and Dip put on 54 in ten overs, skilfully putting away the bad balls and, in Dip’s case, somewhat fortunately surviving some of the better ones. The change bowlers didn’t seem to carry the same threat and Carpenter found the long pavilion boundary with some powerful hitting.

It was McKenzie who dismissed both batsmen in the space of a couple of overs. Dip (16) had a slash at a wide one and nicked it to the keeper while Carpenter (34) left another wide one and momentarily left his crease as the keeper threw down the stumps. 88-4 and 29 runs were needed from the last nine overs. Surely not even RUASCC could mess this one up?

All fears were allayed as Baker (15 not out) cut his first ball for four and hit two more boundaries while, after a quiet start, Chan (14 not out) and his enormous bat clubbed three fours of his own over the mid-on region as RUASCC made it home after 27.3 overs with six to spare – a convincing and well-deserved win.

RUASCC Highlight: Zia’s ripper to remove Skilliter and turn the match in RUASCC’s favour. Ward’s six over mid-wicket and a straight drive from Carpenter were two memorable shots, while Tranter’s wicket was also the cause of much celebration.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Shared between Zia and Carpenter this week. In a low scoring game Carpo’s 34 proved very useful in RUASCC’s successful run chase. Zia’s 3-10 went a significant way to keeping that target down.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle, Carpenter, Dip (wkt), Chan, Baker, Zia, Main, Tranter (capt), Stewart, Withers