Mens 2nd Team
Matches
Sat 20 May 2017  ·  Division 3A
Old Finchleians
13:00
Hertford Cricket Club
Mens 2nd Team
Hertford 2nd XI too Strong for Old Finchleians

Hertford 2nd XI too Strong for Old Finchleians

Will Ray26 May 2017 - 21:40
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Hertford record an important win - the bowlers continue their improvements and the batsman did the job.

Round 3 of the 2nd XI’s promotion assault and Hertford were welcomed to the overnight-rain-ridden landscape of Old Finchleians Memorial Ground with additional grey clouds lingering maliciously. Skipper-Riddle made the decision to bowl, all by himself this week, knowing that a chase would be the favourable option should the expected rain delays come to fruition.

Alex Carter was thrown the ball and ordered to come charging down the hill whilst poor old Rhodes had the task of running up it, both however had the gift of a pitch that was unlikely to be batsman-friendly. Carter was straight into the opening batsman bowling a great line at a good pace, and sure enough took a wicket in the first over sending Depala (1 of 7) back to the hutch without scoring. There was no respite for OF’s as Carter took another, and then Rhodes took two wickets of his own – all of this was well deserved as the opening spells had been fantastic, Carter was very impressive in his spell of 5-0-9-2.

Suddenly the clouds thickened, lightning flashed and the inevitable bellow of thunder followed. The rain came hammered down and Hertford rushed for the covers. The 11 Hertford players were nobly assisted by 2 members of OF’s whilst the rest of them clearly felt that the pitch was too easy to bat on (unlikely given that they were 17-4) – or more likely that they didn’t want to play for the rest of the day.
Eventually the pitch dried, the sun beat down and Hertford were out and ready to go, the ball was thrown to the spin-sisters, to make sure the 20 over minimum was met. Both bowled very well, Cavener’s opening overs were unplayable and Lawrance at the other end was doing his usual thing. Cavener struck in his first over and again a couple of overs later – OF’s were in danger of being bowled out for less than 60. However, Jethwa and Depala (Jnr) came together and batted well against some good bowling, Lawrance was unlucky not to pick up a single wicket and Cavener unlucky not to add to his tally. When both had bowled their allocation it looked like OF’s could really capitalise, however Marnoch and Golder both proved to be able replacements and took the final three wickets in 7 overs.

OF’s had folded for a below-par 91, however if they bowled well this wasn’t going to be a walk-in-the-park for the 2’s. Pavey and Riddle wandered out wondering whether attack or stout defence was the best approach, Pavey decided that trying to drive on-the-up was a good option – extra-cover agreed and completed the catch. Riddle was joined by Chandler and both set about repelling some good bowling and taking runs when they could. Riddle started swinging like nutter outside off-stump which made for painful viewing; however it was proving to be highly-affective. The partnership had moved Hertford onto 42-1 before the home-umpire decided that Chandler was a serious threat to this small-total and claimed his first scalp of the day.

This brought Stevenson to the middle and the game entered a slow period of sustained pressure, but the score moved on to 73 before Riddle – probably with his thoughts on SOCIAL SATURDAY – attempted the big one, only to top-edge it for a good and vital 33. Both the Cavener’s decided to make a game of it and departed for only 1 run between them before Virat-Golder came in, hit 3 sublime 4’s and wondered what all the fuss was about. Hertford had won the match by 5 wickets with Ryan Stevenson still there on 12*.

Hertford recorded an important win, the bowlers continue their improvements, the batsman did the job and also worth a mention was the outstanding catching in the slips from Riddle and Golder. Hertford face a good Northchurch side this coming Saturday but will be confident in the hunt for another 30 points!

Match details

Match date

Sat 20 May 2017

Kickoff

13:00

Competition

Division 3A
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