08/06/24
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
Late flurry of wickets can’t halt fourth straight loss
Newmarket II (20pts) 194-7 beat Camden (7pts) 190-9 by 3 wickets
Sunshine. A belting Dullingham pitch. Captain Redfern calling correctly at the toss. At last, at the fifth time of asking, a day made for batting first and getting millions. Sutton and Nutt began the task serenely enough, taking the score to 37 before Nutt (20) was caught at mid off in the tenth over. Those with a Redders cameo on their Camden bingo cards were in a for a treat. The eleventh over began with a rare two, followed by three consecutive fours. Dot. Out. Spliced to midwicket. 14 from seven balls. With the returning Prathyush joining Sutton out in the middle, expectations were high for an innings of more substance. But Prathyush (3) fell in identical fashion to Nutt, and a promising start had faltered to 61-3 in the sixteenth over. Batley – making a first appearance of the season – made for a reassuring sight, and the Batman was soon looking like he’d never been away. Sutton, meanwhile, looked like he’d never go away. With the score having ticked over to 144, the pair had added 83 for the fourth wicket when Sutton was bowled for 57 in the thirty-third over. The stage was set – seven overs to push the score up towards 200. Cue some selfless batting, with Batley (46), Robinson (11), Krishna (7, including a fine straight six), and Farid (1) falling in the pursuit of quick runs. Adil’s unbeaten 12 from five balls meant that the Thirds finished up with 190-9.
Thirteen runs from the first over of the chase, bowled by Farid, rather set the tone. As did the sight of Sutton, suffering with a tight hamstring, escorting the ball to the boundary in the next over. Rizwan (1-49) took a wicket in the fourth over, but it was a false dawn. At drinks, Newmarket were 124-1 and apparently coasting to victory. All the more so, two overs and 26 runs later. The ball lost in a hedge, The Thirds’ hopes gone the same way. Or were they? Batley removed the home side’s Australian opener, LBW four runs shy of a century. Not the only Aussie in recent memory to be undone by a change of ball, but this wasn’t Chris Woakes and Mark Wood at the Oval. No, this was Redders, replacing Krishna at the pavilion end. For a minute, however, his gentle away-swingers were having the same effect. 154-1 had suddenly and improbably become 183-7. From nowhere, a cricket match had broken out. Three wickets in three overs for the skipper, including the number three for a far from chanceless 63. Another – caught by Farid – for Batley (2-27), and one for Karan (1-36) – who had been brought back on as memories started to stir of Swaffham Bulbeck last year. But it was not be. Newmarket’s number seven calmly steered the home side to a three-wicket victory with six overs to spare.
Man of the Match: Hugo Batley