Another defeat for the 3's

Next up for the Village 3's was another away trip to face St Margaretsbury 3's in Stanstead Abbott.

The toss was won by the Village and I decided to bat on a warm day, with the pitch and outfield looking in excellent condition.

Piers Jenkins (13) and Rangan Krishnaswamy (5) started the innings for the Village but Rangan was out caught behind with the score at 7. James Thompson (22) was next in and started well with runs coming quickly and with the boundaries starting to flow. James was then out caught by the St Margaretsbury's wicket keeper after top edging one. Matt Hawkes (27) then strode to the crease and also started off well with numerous boundaries and at 62-2 off 17 overs the Village were looking to cash in. Piers was then out caught which brought Farzan Dulker Nain (8) to the crease. Matt was then out pulling a ball straight down a fielders throat and then that was quickly followed by Farzan being caught behind. The Village were now 81-5 and were looking unlikely to post the 200 score they might have been thinking of at the start. Dan Penny (48*) and Raja Duraisamy (30) then started to rebuild the innings with both getting the balance between hitting boundaries and rotating the strike and the score had reached 136 before Raja was caught. In came Chalky Cara (0) who lasted one ball being cleaned up, which then brought Priyan Perera (2) to the crease who managed to stay with Dan for a bit before departing LBW. Dave Knight (0) didn't trouble the score which left George Leggett (3*) to help Dan get the Village to a decent score of 171-9 off their allotted 45 overs.

The Village attack started with George Leggett (0-33) and Matt Hawkes (1-30) but the St Margaretsbury's number 1 and 2 batsman got off to a flying start with 34 runs coming off the first 5 overs. George was unlucky not to pick up a wicket with consecutive balls being edge through the slips for four. At 95-1 the result looked inevitable but Chalky Cara (1-33) afforded the skipper more control and was joined by Rangan Krishnaswamy (2-33) and the scoring rate dropped with the slower bowlers. Dan Penny (3-16) then bowled extremely well at one end and the Village had started to put some pressure on the St Margaretsbury's innings and at 147-7 the Village had half a shout of winning. James Thompson (0-23) also bowled but the Village could not pick up any more wickets and the oppo got to the target in the 42nd over.

Great performance with bat and ball from Dan Penny and a useful innings from Raja Duraisamy helped the Village get to a decent total but in truth they were 30 runs short of were they needed to be and then gifted the oppo a head start with the first overs of their innings. Apart from that it was a close enough game and one that could have gone either way.