failing to make the best use of the best batting pitch in the league!
Windsor 178 all out (Bullock 54)
lost to
Farnham Common 181 for 3 (Fearon 59)
Windsor played away on Sat, at local rivals Farnham Common, in the second to last game this season, and wanting desperately not to finish last! Hill won the toss, and decided to bat on a belter of a pitch that had a bit in it for everybody. Hill wanted to post a minimum of 200 on a track that should give you 250 if you had an in form team. Farnham Common also wanted to bat first to try and cement their promotion ambitions, so it was set up for a thrilling match!
The new opening pair of Channa and Noble again opened this week and Channa seemed in the groove straight away hitting 10 runs of the first over! runs slowed down rapidly in the following overs and Noble was removed for 1 in the 6th over with the score on 12. Davis came to the crease and faced some tight lines from both opening bowlers, but Shabir doing the best work. Davis fell in the 10th over bringing Charters into the attack. Cahnna and Charters looked steady and pushed some lovely looking drives to the boundaries on a very fast outfield. Channa was caught in the 17th over with the total on 65, and Windsor looked to be getting themselves into trouble. Bullock entered the fray and played some glorious drives, and the pair took windsor past the 100 mark. Charters, played what he described as ‘the worst shot all year’, to be bowled for a lovely 33. Patel was run out on 14 (after looking settled and attacking any bad delivery) in a bizarre situation and bizarre appealing, bringing Hill to the crease. Shabir came back on and again bowled a lovely out swinging line. Hill flashed at one outside off stump and was caught by the ‘best catch of the season’ in the gully area. Windsor again were looking down the barrel at 161 for 7. Bullock was out soon after for a lovely 54 and Windsor tail just managed to hang in using all the overs to set a below par 179 to win.
Farnham Common play one way and one way only and looked to play thier wild attacking shots from the very first ball! Hill and Edge were on the receiving end of lots of bad luck with edges going for 4, catches being dropped or not attempted at all and inside edges missing the stumps. Fearon was finally removed by Edge on 42 but had raced to 73 for 1 off Windsor’s forst 12 overs! Hill brought on Endacott to try and slow the game up, which with his straight and full medium pace, did the job. The wild shots slowed and the run rate dropped slightly from a huge effort by the seamer who was in to replace injured Hartridge. Farnham pressed on though and punished the bad ball, which brought Kellard into the attack to try and take some valuable wickets. The Farnham batsmen played with their heads down to try and prevent Windsor from taking any more points. Once the batsmen had got used to Endacott and Kellards lines, Hill brought himself back on in the 30th over with the score on 150. Hill first removed Kumar with a genuine bouncing delivery which caught the gloves on the way past the batsman’s chest, and caught well by Davis behind the sticks. 2 balls later Hill also removed Shakil by bowling him on 59. Edge came back on , but the writing was on the wall and Farnham hit a boundary in the 34th over to seal a comfortable victory.
Farnham turned it on today, and rode their luck early doors with the bat, but deserve to go up and play a better standard of cricket in 2A next season. Windsor had some good moments during the game but it wasn’t enough to challenge Farnham and deserved to loose. Windsor play their final match at home next weekend, and only a mathematician can work out that if we get 25 points and all the luck in the world goes our way with everyone else loosing in the relegation battle in 3A and 3B, can Windsor possibily stay up…..