First win for the 3's

Second up for the Village 3's were Southgate Adelaide at home on a warm day.

The visiting skipper won the toss and decided to bowl which I was rather happy with.

James Thompson (13) and George Downes (0) opened the batting and the last ball of the 3rd over produced a wicket with George chipping one up for an easy catch. Next in was Rangan Krishnaswamy (15) who helped steady the ship and the runs began to flow but unfortunately the skipper decided to go back to one at the Village, a cardinal sin and was promptly bowled. In came Matthew Hawkes (92) for his first appearance of the season and he started steadily before a combination of excellent timing and some lusty blows. Rangan then departed the next over also bowled and in came Dan Penny (1) who did not last long and was also bowled to leave the Village 52-4. Next up was Graham Leggett (14) who along with Matt started to take the attack to the oppo, however Graham was then given out LBW, a decision that did not go down well. In came Farzan Dulker Nain (77) and he followed in Graham's suit and went on the front foot. Farzan and Matt then really started applying the pressure on the oppo and brought up a 100+ partnership with some impressive hitting. Farzan was then caught and Matt bowled to bring in Afshin Yadzi (3) who did not last to long who was then followed in the hutch by George Leggett (0) who was victim to Chalky running him out. Chalky Cara (8*) and Richard Downes (6*) then added a few boundaries to take us up to our 45 overs at a score of 278-9.

George Leggett (1-22) and Chalky Cara (3-45) opened and Chalky picked up the first 3 wickets to leave the oppo 3 down with about 40 on the board. Southgate's number 4 & 5 batsman then produced a partnership that almost rivalled that of Matt and Farzan and the Village bowlers were made to toil in the field with Matt Hawkes (0-43), Graham Leggett (0-43) taking the brunt of it. Dan Penny (2-17) bowled very nicely to restrict the oppo as well as picking up crucial wickets. Richard Downes (0-2) then bowled 7 balls before injury struck and Afshin Yadzi (2-28) had to take over the rest of his over. This proved to be fortunate as Afshin bowled well picking up wickets along the way to halt Southgate's run chase. George Downes (1-10) also picked up a wicket before George Leggett came back on to pick up his wicket courtesy of a superb low diving catch in the slips by Richard Downes. The Village could not pick up the final wicket to put a gloss on the win but Southgate were never really in danger of reaching the target set by the Village.

Excellent first win of the season with notably contributions from Matt Hawkes, Farzan Dulker Nain, Chalky Cara, Dan Penny and Afshin Yadzi