BBC Caversham (A) – 11.5.13

BBC Caversham 112 all out

Main 3-15, Withers 3-16

RUASCC 114-3

Ward 32 not out, Eagle 31

RUASCC won by 7 wickets

For the fourth game in a row RUASCC fielded first and a decent performance began with Zia taking a wicket with the opening ball of the match.  After just 13 runs were scored from the first 10 overs Withers was replaced by Tranter who, despite lobbing in the odd high full-toss, did manage to find a decent line and length and had a strong LBW appeal turned down before he castled Castle for 11.

Tranter was also involved in the next two wickets: firstly when Main found an edge that deflected off the keeper and spooned gently to him at first slip, then a superb diving stop from Ward pushed the ball to Tranter who threw down the stumps to add a direct hit run out to his wicket and catch, thus wrapping up the man of the match award with barely two hours gone.

Ward’s first ball went for six over long-on as Bennett looked to counter-attack, but the return of Withers (bowling with four slips and two gullies “like Dennis Lillee”) put an end to that and BBC collapsed from 74-3 to 84-8 under the onslaught of Withers and Main who shared six wickets for 31 runs in 23 overs. 

Smith, perhaps batting a bit low at number nine, hit 20 from one over to push the score past 100 but he soon ran out of partners when some dubious calling saw his partner run out by several yards.

A few years ago on this ground RUASCC failed to chase down 117 to win, and the batsmen knew they had to contend with a difficult pitch and a slow outfield.  What we needed was an innings of real control and substance, and somewhat surprisingly that innings came from Mike Ward who defended patiently against accurate bowling from Smith while Eagle scored the bulk of the runs in their opening partnership of 42.

The first bowling change saw the end of Eagle, LBW for the second game in a row, and Dersh soon followed, bowled by Smith who by this point had 1-13 from 10 overs.  It was another bowling change that did for Loader (9) and Zia very nearly went first ball when he skied a chance to mid-off, but in attempting to catch the ball the fielder somehow almost managed to rip his thumb off instead.  The fielder played no further part in the match and Zia recovered his composure to hit a six and two fours on his way to 27 not out.

In the 31^st over Ward finally recorded his first boundary and in the very next over Zia took a single to allow the opener to hit the winning runs.  A comfortable win by seven wickets with plenty of overs to spare.

RUASCC Highlight:  Tranter’s direct-hit run out, set up by Ward’s diving stop.

RUASCC Man of the Match:  Tranter.

RUASCC Team:  Ward (wkt2), Eagle (capt), Dersh, Loader, Zia, Dip (wkt1), Greenhalf, Main, Tranter, Rahul, Withers