Crossbats vs Morden

Venue – Raynes Park

In contrasting conditions from last week, Crossbats convened at Raynes Park with dark clouds, cool conditions and drizzly rain overhead.

With play in the first test at Lords abandoned due the above mentioned conditions, the Crossbats players may have been forgiven for Considering the same fate here – However, Captain Dunbar had other ideas and was fast summing up conditions and cooking up a plan.

The two captains met in the middle for the toss, Crossbats offer of two new balls was declined by the home skipper and when Dunbar won the toss he immediately chose to bowl, wanting use of the shine before it turned to soap.

With all but one of his charges bemused by the decision to bowl, the Crossbats trudged onto the pitch and the new ball was entrusted to Fraser, working in concert with Van Vuuren.

And what a sprightly track it was! The conditions belied the life in this pitch as the ball zipped around at good pace and with some good bounce to boot.

Stocky Moore had only one game plan on his mind – hit out or get out, unfortunately for him it was the latter that had the most impact, with Spiro holding a thick Edge off the accurate Fraser. Low looked to have the crossbats bowler’s measure and was of genuine concern to the captain. With the ball doing enough and the batsmen still looking to play their shots, Dunbar set a trap, moving his fine leg into a fly slip position at both ends of the Ground.

And just when he thought his grand plan might be becoming pointless, the danger man Low went at one from Fraser catching a big edge down to Van Vuuren In the fly slip position, who to the jubilation of the captain, made no mistake.

Both Fraser and Van Vuuren continued to suffocate the batsmen and had them trickling along at 2.5 an over. Van Vuuren was unlucky not to get a wicket But created immense pressure to finish with tidy figures of 7 overs, no wicket for 15. Both the opening pair bowled through with Fraser the beneficiary of two wickets and Very healthy figures of 7 overs, 2/16.

1st change was Bob Jones and joined at the other end by leading wicket taker Simon Reeve.

And it wasn’t long before Reeve began hauling in the wickets – With the batsmen under increasing pressure to get on with it, they began taking some chances and Those chances were going to hand and staying in hand. Reeves first wicket came by virtue of Dunbar poaching a catch from Carter, shortly followed up by Reeve slipping One through the batsmen to claim his second in as many minutes. Jones, not wanting to be outdone was rewarded when new keeper Spiro held a pearler behind the stumps To send this Morden side into disarray at 42/5.

Reeve struck again, enticing the batsmen to have a go, only to find Dunbar at mid on. Then, in what was a shambolic moment, Reeve again looked to have picked up a wicket when a huge LBW shout went up – the batsmen was fixated on the umpire and didn’t realise he was standing out of his crease – Van Vuuren realised, swooping on the static ball and firing it in, hitting the stumps – either way, the batsmen was out, but unfortunately for Reeve, it goes down as a Run Out and a good piece of work by Van Vuuren.

Reeve did claim his fourth moments later when the batsmen lifted one to a waiting Van Vuuren and it was all but over for Morden. Jones bowling tightly offered the tail end batsmen some flight and not being able to control himself, launched into a shot that found Reeve in the deep, taking a great overhead catch.

The ever patient Fitch was bought on to stop the tail wagging and get the innings over with and he did just that, coaxing the batsmen to again hit over the top, but to his demise as Man of the Match Reeve, calmly waited for the ball to fall into his hands, capping off a great inning for himself, finishing with 4/21 and two good catches and a great inning for Crossbats, bundling Morden out for a mediocre 78.

Hot tea and sandwiches were met by fat blokes unable to control themselves and when sufficiently stuffed, it was Steve Smith and Sean Spurdle to face the Opening onslaught from Morden.

The opening bowlers generated good pace and the ball was again zipping around, but it was the accuracy that proved the problem, leaking wides and byes they could ill afford, giving crossbats a healthy start and putting Morden on the back foot. Smith looked solid in defence and Spurdle aggressive in his strokplay and after 5 overs, the crossbats had raced into the thirty’s.

A change of bowling proved to be a good decision as Smith was removed after some dogged resilience. Wright came to the crease and was immediately off the mark With a well timed tickle off his legs.

Spurdle was next to go, when he was stumped after wandering out of his crease to show boat to the crowd, for a handy 20. Fitch had earned a promotion up the order and was not about to give his wicket away. He and Wright looked to have the bowlers worked out before Wright was dismissed by Sharma, who produced a brilliant catch off his own bowling.

Crossbats middle order had not been performing well of late and this was reiterated by Carter, who was caught shortly after to give Sharma his 4th and Morden a sniff of victory. But the sniff was snuffed out as Fitch and Dunbar, playing some good shots saw the Crossbats home, finishing on 14*(Fitch) and 11*(Dunbar) respectively and Taking Crossbats to a 6 wicket victory and their 3rd of the season.

A thoroughly satisfying result after a few weeks of near misses – Next week it’s the Rainmen at home in Bushey Park.

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