3's suffer embarrassing defeat

The 3's were away at Northwood Town 3's on the Astroturf strip.

The skipper lost the toss and the Village were asked to field.

George Leggett (2-22) and Andrew Godfrey (1-25) opened the bowling and George struck in his 1st over thanks to an excellent high one handed catch by the skipper at 1st slip. Both youngsters were bowling nicely and Godders got the next wicket bowling the number 3 batsman for Northwood Town to leave them 11-2. Chalky Cara (3-29) and Afshin Yazdi (1-25) replaced the opening bowlers and both got into a nice rhythm. Chalky got the next wicket to fall after Rachit Chawla making his debut, hung onto to a catch and then got the number 5 batsman out by bowling him. The number 2 batsman for Northwood Town had stayed in and had managed to get to 35 before he was next to fall victim to Chalky as he took a good low caught and bowled chance to leave the oppo 66-5. Afshin then struck to get his deserved wicket as he bowled the number 7 batsman. Dave Knight (1-15) then replaced Chalky and in his first over had picked up a wicket bowling the number 8 batsman. Godders and George Leggett came back on to finish the innings and George picked up the 2nd of his wickets bowling the number 9. The innings finished on 120-8 after 42 overs giving the Village a good opportunity to win the game.

James Thompson (6) and Farzan Dulker Nain (0) opened the batting for the Village and with the 2nd ball of the innings, Farzan facing his first ball had been bowled. George Downes (1) joined the skipper at the crease and both were keen to keep their wickets in hand and to play themselves in. The score had reached 11 and the skipper who had looked comfortable got his feet all wrong and was bowled. Rachit Chawla (4) joined George at the crease but George didn't survive long as he edged one to the keeper who at the third attempt caught him. Mohamed Salahudeen (25) was next in but it was not long until Rachit was out caught, which brought Michael Televantou (0) to the crease and he was out first ball, leaving the Village 16-5. Afshin Yazdi (0) was next in and he and Mohamed tried to get the innings somehow back on track. Mohamed started hitting out and was able to find the boundary on a few occasions. Afshin was then caught to bring Andrew Godfrey (0) to the crease but the very next over he had been bowled. George Leggett (2) was next in to help Mohamed but he only lasted 4 more overs as he was trapped leg before wicket. Dave Knight (0*) joined George at the crease and George was next out bowled leaving Chalky Cara (0) last man and he was also bowled to leave the Village all out for 55.

A sorry state of affairs with the batting yet again which is really costing us this season. The bowling and fielding display on the most part was excellent to restrict the oppo to only 120 with Chalky and George Leggett picking up 5 wickets between them. Only Mohamed made any real contribution with the bat with extras being 2nd top scorer. We must collectively improve our batting and not give our wickets away as if we continue this trend will be in a relegation battle come the end of the season.