Hamro Foundation Essex Cricket League Division One, Saturday June 26
The last Saturday in June saw me take a long stroll up to
Garon Park from my flat near the seafront in Southend to watch one of my local
sides Old Southendian & Southchurch take on Hordon On The Hill in a Hamro
Foundation Essex Cricket League Division One encounter.
The hosts won the toss on a beautiful sunny afternoon and
elected to bat first, and they got off to a great start as openers Sam Hodgson
and Kyle Smith put on 69 for the opening wicket in good time before Smith was
dismissed for 37 after being trapped LBW by Paul Bennett, and at 90/1 the hosts
looked well set.
But the hosts then lost three wickets, including Hodgson for
a well made 47, to fall to 105/4, and that good start was threatening to be undone,
however, the hosts managed to dig in and get themselves through that little
wobble and saw decent contributions from Waqas Khaliq (20), Max Craddock (38)
and keeper Matthew Darvill (20) get them back on track.
At 197/8 they still hoped to get 200, and thanks to cameos
from Sandeep Muraleedharan (19no) and skipper Matthew Austin (14) they got
themselves up to a very respectable 235/9 in their 50 overs, meaning the
visitors would have to bat well to chase down that score in a minimum 45 overs,
or at least not get bowled out and take a draw in this one.
Skipper Jeff West was the pick of the bowlers for Horndon
taking 3-46, but there were decent contributions from Andrew Clark (2-45), Bennett
(2-39) and Connor Hammond (2-48), but could their batsmen now back up their
efforts?
Initially Hordon got off to a decent start with the bat,
reaching 43/0 thanks to openers Ian Clark and Ryan Plom, but once they lost
their first wicket, they crumbled to 72/6 and it looked nailed on that OS would
go onto take a big win, but skipper West decided that taking 3-46 with the ball
was not enough, and decided he would play a match saving innings for his side
too.
Whilst batsmen came and went, he stood firm at one end,
although it still looked like the hosts might just sneak a win as Austin and
Ahmed Khawaja’s superb bowling saw them chip away at the wickets, and when
Harry Cook was bowled by Austin with eleven balls of the game to go, the
visitors had just one wicket left.
Clark, who had bowled well in the hosts innings, strode out
to face the final few balls, and his single in the final over meant West could
face the final few balls and grab a superb draw for Horndon when it looked impossible
at one stage in their innings, and his 80 not out was a superb effort and
capped a wonderful MOTM all round performance for his side, so well done to
skipper West for that.
Disappointment for OS though who could not force that win,
Austin (3-42) and Khawaja (3-40) were the pick of the bowlers, Jamil Ahmed
(2-27) and Ahsan Yousaf (1-29) grabbed the other wickets, but it was not enough
in the end as the visitors ended on 160/9 in their 46 overs. It means OS pick
up 12 points whilst Horndon take 6pts.
A good day of cricket though with an exciting end, what more
can you ask for, to see scorecards and bowling figures in more detail please click
link here https://essexcl.play-cricket.com/website/results/4644355
Here are some photos I took during the day…
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