3's lose to Potton after contentious game

The 3's were at home against Potton 2's trying to bounce back from last week's defeat.

The toss was won by Potton who decided to bat.

Tommy Smith (1-9) and Ayush Shah (0-30) opened the bowling for the Village and it was Tommy who got the 1st wicket courtesy of a catch from Matt Hawkes to dismiss Potton's skipper. George Leggett (3-19) and Dan Penny (3-69) then replaced the openers and that combination bought about the next wicket with Dan taking a good slip catch off George's bowling. George then got the next wicket bowling Potton's number 4 batsman. Then the controversial moment of the game when Potton's number 5 batsman pulled a ball from Dan for a couple of runs and with everyone looking where the ball had gone no one had seen him stand on his stumps. The skipper then spotted that both bails were off and subsequently appealed to both umpires. Both had said they had not seen it and the batsman had said he hadn't hit the stumps, all of which left a bitter taste in the mouths of the fielding side. He was on 10 at the time and this would prove to be pivotal. Dan then picked up his 3 wickets and the Village were taking wickets regularly and were hoping to keep the oppo below 170. Matt Hawkes (1-44) and James Thompson (1-46) came on and James within a couple of overs had got a run out and a wicket courtesy of the 2nd of George Downes' catch. The number 10 batsman for Potton hung around with the number 5 and they built a partnership with the number 5 batsman hitting the ball to all parts and the score surpassing 200. George came back on to take his last wicket, another bowled and then Hawkesy wrapped up the innings bowling the number 11. In this time the number 5 batsman had brought up his 100 and Potton had reached 221, although the Village had picked up all the bowling points for bowling them out in the required overs.

The Village reply started well with Piers Jenkins (20) and Matt Hawkes (36) who brought up a 50 partnership before Hawkesy tried one big hit too many and was caught in the deep. That brought James Thompson (8) to the crease but within an over first Piers then Farzan Dulker Nain (0) both got out. Graham Leggett (45) strode to the crease with a partnership being needed to get the Village back on track. Unfortunately the skipper was then bowled and then both George Downes (0) and Dan Penny (0) were both caught off consecutive balls leaving the Village with an uphill task. James Samarasinghe (25) joined Graham at the crease and stayed in whilst accumulating runs with Graham at the other end looking in ominous form. Both were able to keep the good ball out and then punish anything that deserved it. Graham again showed his class and was smashing the ball to all parts and with these 2 in it gave the Village hope. Graham then was caught in the deep which brought in George Leggett (2) who tried to stay with James but he was bowled off an inside edge bringing Ayush Shah (11) to the crease who looked solid in his approach. James was then bowled to one that stayed low after an impressive knock with Tommy Smith (0*) the last man in. Ayush hit a few boundaries and with a few wayward balls from the oppo going to the fence the Village had got past 170 to bring in the maximum batting points. With only 3.4 overs left to survive to stop the oppo from taking the points, Ayush was then bowled to another one that had kept low and the Village were all out for 174.

In the end the pivotal moment in the match was the Potton number 5 not walking when he had clearly hit his own stumps and if he had the Village may only have been chasing 130. In the end 20 points was the least we deserved from this match and with 3 wickets a piece for George Leggett and Dan Penny and excellent knocks from Graham Leggett and James Samarasinghe the Village could be proud of their efforts.