3's start with defeat

The 3rd XI started the season at home in glorious sunshine and won the toss and asked Boxmoor 3's to bat.

Tommy Smith (3-67) and Andrew Godfrey (1-13) started the bowling for the Village. The oppo got off to a flyer as the bowlers could not find their lengths., although Godders did pick up one of the openers LBW. Dave Knight (2-45) replaced Tommy after his first 3 overs and he also could not get it right with his 2nd over going for 26 runs all of which were boundaries. After 10 overs Boxmoor were 75-1. Anand Kumar (0-22) came on to replace Andrew and got into a nice rhythm offering the skipper some control. Dave Knight, after his 2nd over bowled nicely and picked up 2 wickets courtesy of catches by Anand and the skipper. After 20 overs the Village had dragged the game back with Boxmoor 88-3. George Leggett (3-27) came onto replace Dave and bowled nicely picking up 3 wickets caught by Andrew Teague, Dave Knight & Richard Pfeiffer. The oppo were starting to up the tempo though and runs were still flowing. James Thompson (0-21) came onto replace Anand to fill in some overs and a wicket fell as some good work from Tommy Smith brought about a run out. James was then replaced by Tommy who was more successful in his second spell picking up his 3 wickets courtesy of catches from Farzan Dulker Nain & Richard Pfeiffer. The last wicket fell with 2 balls to spare as the last man dragged onto to give Tommy his last wicket. Boxmoor were all out for 202.

The reply started terribly as James Thompson (0) was out the 4th ball of the innings. Farzan Dulker Nain (22) joined Andrew Teague (16) and started to build a partnership with Farzan being given 3 lives due to dropped catches. Both men were picking there shots and finding the boundaries but Andrew was next out as he was caught at slip. Michael Televantou (4) joined Farzan but both were to depart soon after each other as first Michael was bowled before Farzan was caught in the deep. Richard Pfeiffer (0) & Anand Kumar (19) were the next men in and Anand was looking good scoring a few boundaries, one a six to get the score moving. Both were then out in quick succession as both were bowled. Dave Knight (5) & George Leggett (8) were next in but Dave fell to the same bowler that had got Richard & Anand as he was bowled. Mohamed Salahudeen (17) joined George at the crease and both were able to rotate the strike and keep the score board ticking and managed the best partnership of 30 runs before George was caught leaving the Village 104-8. Tommy Smith (12) came in and quickly hit 3 boundaries. Mohamed then was out caught and Andrew Godfrey (4) came in to bat with Tommy. Tommy then tried another big hit and was caught and the Village were all out for 120.

Not the start that we wanted but with half the team missing from last year and 3 new players making their debut there were some positives. Andrew Godfrey bowled well and with both Tommy Smith & George Leggett picking up 3 wickets each, maximum bowling points were acquired. Unfortunately the batsmen let the team down with only Farzan Dulker Nain getting into the 20's.