Shepherd’s flock demolish Windsor on opening day
Windsor hosted Finchamstead 2nd xi on opening day and in spite of some lacklustre pre-season performances held high hopes of getting the season under way with a win.
Windsor won the toss and elected to bowl first in the hope its much vaunted pace attack could make serious inroads into the Finch batting early on.
New overseas player Mehmood Malik and Nichols took the new ball but struggled to hit good areas, regularly spraying the ball wide of the stumps the Windsor fielding wasn’t up to scratch either wit 2 simple chances put down by Weston in the slips. It took an exceptional piece of keeping by Merv Care to remove the first finch wicket, his sharp leg-side stumping whilst standing up to Malik was the only highlight for the hosts in the first hour as Finch cruised to 60/1. Tom Hartridge, playing his first league game in 3 years, joined the attack with Adam Allen-Turner and the runs continued to flow for the visitors until spin was introduced. Finch skipper Mark Shepherd had raced to 66 when Rah Mohindru dropped the simplest of caught and bowled chances, thankfully some smart bowling from Harmeet Chana removed the dangerous Shepherd in the following over and Windsor breathed a little easier. Harper and Wild ticked the score over consistently in the middle overs for Finch and took the score 177/4 with Finch perfectly placed for a tilt at 250+. Mohindru then enticed a Wild slog that was very well held by Harry Jordan on the deep, Allen-Turner rightfully claimed some credit for the dismissal the ball preceding the wicket with some excellent outfielding that turned a likely 2 into a single, he kept these standards at a high level and 2 overs later and earnt Windsor a run out. With the Finch tail well and truly exposed Malik claimed 3 wickets in 5 balls and at 195/9 Finch looked in danger of falling short of 200. A couple of lusty blows saw them reach max batting points and finish on 203/10 of 51.2 overs. Mohindru was definitely the pick of the bowlers and the keeping of Care (3 stumpings & 2 catches) and fielding of Allen-Turner helped restrict Finch to a very total.
Windsor started their innings with a new opening pair of skipper Adam Weston and former Kenilworth (Birmingham) batsman, James Madley. The new partnership did not last long with both men sent back to the pavilion inside the first 4 overs. A couple of appalling umpiring decisions also saw experienced duo Nichols and Malik following them back soon after and when Chana was also removed without scoring Windsor were in an awful mess at 40/5. Lines, Jordan and Allen-Turner were the only batsmen to reach double figures as Windsor were bundled out for a poultry 126 in 38 overs.
It was an extremely disappointing way to start the season and Windsor slumped to its first defeat at the hands of Finchamstead in 7 years.
Match Highlights
Malik 12/4/38/3, Mohindru 13.2/1/43/3
Allen-Turner 47*, Jordan 27, Lines 17
Allen-Turner-Jordan 7th wkt partnership 57
Care 5 dismissals