Copford Cricket ClubCopford beat Witham in PDQ Premier......
Back to the Match Reports5th July 2009
Another home game this Sunday against a struggling Witham side, but we knew it would not be easy and we would have to be at our best to get another win and cement our place at 3rd in the table.
Skipper Andy Thripp won the toss and chose to bat again on what looked like a good batting wicket with a rather short boundary. James Bell and Ian Catley opened the batting and were immediately faced with much more movement in the air and off the seam than was expected. However both openers battled well and managed to see off the first ten overs and still score at four an over. Surprisingly JB was the first to go for 24 after top edging a pull shot. As a result, wickets began to fall at a constant rate leaving us six down with just over 100 on the board. It was not until Ben Rawson came to the crease that we began to put on a substantial amount of runs. Rawson and Adam Parker put together a very important partnership giving us a chance. In fact, Ben’s first five run scoring shots were all boundaries. Some exciting batting from both ends pushed the score up past 200, and Adam was the last wicket to fall looking to push the score on further. Andy Bell joined Ben at the crease and some heavy hitting in the last two overs pushed our score up to 230 for 7 at tea.
Some tight bowling was then needed in the early stages to build pressure on the visitors. Opener Chris Smith did not disappoint and claimed a wicket in the first over forcing the batsman into a shot he did not feel comfortable playing so early in the innings. Some tight bowling from all of our bowlers built the pressure on Witham and caused wickets to fall, leading to the required run rate increasing as the innings went on. However, we knew that with a few wickets in hand and some good batsman at the crease it was not game over just yet. As it was they were left in touching distance with only five overs to go. Belly got the vital breakthrough which finally meant we were into the tail and more wickets tumbled as both Belly and Steve Moriarty began to bowl really well under pressure. The last wicket fell when Adam took a great stumping off the bowling of Belly to leave Witham falling just 19 runs short.
Another really impressive performance from everyone. Some really tight work in the field helped us to the victory this week, and also everyone chipping in with runs with the bat.
Team: Andy Thripp (c), Adam Parker (wk), Ian Catley, Russell Measor, James Bell, Steve Moriarty, Ben Rawson, Andy Reid, Andy Bell, Ivan Humm, Chris Smith
Man of the Match: Ben Rawson for his 67*
Report by I. Catley