Big defeat in penultimate game

The 3's were away at Bushey 3's in their penultimate game of the season.

The skipper lost the toss and the opposition decided to have a bat.

Andrew Godfrey (3-18) and Tommy Smith (0-38) opened the bowling for the Village and both started well with Godders getting the first wicket of the match by bowling the number 2 batsman. In his next over he picked up another, this time bowling the number 1 batsman who was swinging at everything and in his 5th got rid of the number 3 batsman courtesy of an excellent catch by Tommy Smith to leave Bushey 31-3 off of 9 overs. The number 4 and 5 for Bushey then started steadily to rebuild the innings on an excellent pitch for batting before increasing the run rate with a floury of boundaries. Mohamed Salahudeen (0-40) and Chalky Cara (0-45) replaced the opening pair to try and tie down the batsmen and to see if they could grab a wicket for the skipper. Unfortunately the batsmen continued to score quickly and with the fact that the Village had only started with 10 men and then Joe Ellis having to go off after being struck by the ball in the temple whilst fielding it was going to be a long day in the field. Both batsmen passed their 50's and there was a need for a wicket if the Village were to get back in the game. James Thompson (2-58) and Dave Knight (2-55) had replaced Mo and Chalky but there was little change as everything was finding the boundary as the skipper could not plug the gaps. Finally in the 33rd over the 4th wicket fell as the skipper bowled the oppo's skipper and then a couple of overs later he got the number 6 batsman also bowling him. Dave Knight then picked up the other 2 wickets to fall both courtesy of Farzan Dulker Nain stumping both batsman. The innings had finished on 266-7 and the Village knew they would need a miracle to pull off a victory.

James Thompson (55) and Farzan Dulker Nain (2) opened the batting for the Village and Farzan was 1st to go as he was caught at mid off to leave the Village 2-1. Mohamed Salahudeen (36) then joined the skipper and started with a boundary and the pair began to score freely as the pitch was a good one and you got value for your shots. The pair had got the score to 49 before Mo was caught, which brought in Joe Ellis (30) to the crease, who was watchful and stayed with the skipper. The runs were still flowing and the pair first brought up a 50 partnership as well as bringing up the team 100 but Joe was soon to depart as he was caught. Andrew Godfrey (3) was next in and stayed with the skipper for 7 overs before he was next out caught, which brought Dave Knight (2) to the crease. He was bowled in the 35th over and in the same over Tommy Smith (0) was caught to leave the Village 133-6. Chalky Cara (6) was next in to join the skipper and scored a boundary before the skipper reached his battling 50. Chalky was then bowled in the penultimate over which brought Priyan Perera (3*) to the crease. The skipper was then bowled in the last over looking to score some more batting points for the team which meant the last man Femi Erbahor (1*) had a few balls to face before the innings was ended on 160-8.

Again the bowling performance cost the Village with not enough strength in depth which wasn't helped with the fact that we only had 10 and had Joe go off with an injury for 15 overs. In the batting there were good contributions from Mohamed and Joe who scored 30's but it was left to the skipper to steer the innings towards a decent total with his 3rd 50 of the season. A must win game awaits us on Saturday if we are to avoid relegation.