Windsor 1st XI – THE WIND OF CHANGE ?
On Saturday Windsor 1st XI travelled to league contenders Maidenhead and Bray.
With the 1st team performance steadily improving week on week, selection this week on the whole for Windsor cricket club was dealt a horror blow with many of 1st team squad regulars being unavailable.
Windsor skipper Raul Mohindru was given the decision to choose at the toss and he elected to bat.
Windsor opened the innings with Adam Weston and Sam Jordan and got of to a flyer – the roles appeared to be reversed as the inform Weston blazed the boundary ropes with a number of searing drives whilst his batting partner in contrast played a surprisingly more patient role in contrast.
At the score at 50 Windsor lost the wicket of Weston to a decent leg cutter to which only an inform batsmen would be good enough to nick to keeper with , this bought in Vishal Nair who quickly departed leg before for 0.
Sam Jordan was joined by James Mace as runs continuously to flow briskly on the scoreboard, Jordan was showing a good return to form before being stumped. Mace was joined by young Kevin Das as they doubled the score to 120 in 13 overs.
During the drinks break the heavens opened and play was delayed for 28 minutes. Fortunately this meant no overs were lost. Unfortunately for Windsor Kevin Das (20) and James Mace lost their wickets with a succession 0f 3 more as Windsor lost 5 wickets for 1 run ! A remarkable fight back took place as Mohindru and Kellard added 27 before Mohindru slipped half way down the wicket going for an ambitious run for the veteran. Enter Tom Hartridge at number 11, Tom came in all guns blazing and took a liking to the Bray attack this catalysed Kellard to join the party as the pair opened up, and played a series of exquisite shots befitting of top order batsmen – the pair contributed to a record last wicket partnership taking the score to 210 of the allocated 52 overs.
After tea, Windsor elected to take the old ball with the pace of Tom Hartridge and spin from Mark Lines. With an competitive total on the board this allowed Windsor to set an attacking fields and this was well backed up by an excellent standard of an fielding special mention to Sam Jordan who put his considerable body in the line of fire at short leg. Good control from the opening pair of bowlers pegged back the Bray batsmen who lost wickets in pursuit of victory . J Tattersall coming in at 6 offered any real resistance with a fine 51 not out. With a run chase on and Bray frantically looking to push the run rate Kellard was introduced to the attack and he quickly moped up 3 wickets in the tail as Bray collapsed to 158 all out. Mark Lines bowled unchanged and bagged 5-78 of his 18 overs, once again an excellent spell from the young left arm spinner who is elevating his position as a regular match winner in the Windsor line up.
This weeks result emphasized the current strength of the 1st X1 squad, as the players bought in this week took full advantage of the situation to secure their positions, and make a serious competition for 1st XI places.
Windsor for the second week running picked up 25 points for the win , and now with only 9 points behind leaders Cookham Dean make Windsor real contenders for the League.
Windsor skipper Raul Mohindru was given the decision to choose at the toss and he elected to bat.
Windsor opened the innings with Adam Weston and Sam Jordan and got of to a flyer – the roles appeared to be reversed as the inform Weston blazed the boundary ropes with a number of searing drives whilst his batting partner in contrast played a surprisingly more patient role in contrast.
At the score at 50 Windsor lost the wicket of Weston to a decent leg cutter to which only an inform batsmen would be good enough to nick to keeper with , this bought in Vishal Nair who quickly departed leg before for 0.
Sam Jordan was joined by James Mace as runs continuously to flow briskly on the scoreboard, Jordan was showing a good return to form before being stumped. Mace was joined by young Kevin Das as they doubled the score to 120 in 13 overs.
During the drinks break the heavens opened and play was delayed for 28 minutes. Fortunately this meant no overs were lost. Unfortunately for Windsor Kevin Das (20) and James Mace lost their wickets with a succession 0f 3 more as Windsor lost 5 wickets for 1 run ! A remarkable fight back took place as Mohindru and Kellard added 27 before Mohindru slipped half way down the wicket going for an ambitious run for the veteran. Enter Tom Hartridge at number 11, Tom came in all guns blazing and took a liking to the Bray attack this catalysed Kellard to join the party as the pair opened up, and played a series of exquisite shots befitting of top order batsmen – the pair contributed to a record last wicket partnership taking the score to 210 of the allocated 52 overs.
After tea, Windsor elected to take the old ball with the pace of Tom Hartridge and spin from Mark Lines. With an competitive total on the board this allowed Windsor to set an attacking fields and this was well backed up by an excellent standard of an fielding special mention to Sam Jordan who put his considerable body in the line of fire at short leg. Good control from the opening pair of bowlers pegged back the Bray batsmen who lost wickets in pursuit of victory . J Tattersall coming in at 6 offered any real resistance with a fine 51 not out. With a run chase on and Bray frantically looking to push the run rate Kellard was introduced to the attack and he quickly moped up 3 wickets in the tail as Bray collapsed to 158 all out. Mark Lines bowled unchanged and bagged 5-78 of his 18 overs, once again an excellent spell from the young left arm spinner who is elevating his position as a regular match winner in the Windsor line up.
This weeks result emphasized the current strength of the 1st X1 squad, as the players bought in this week took full advantage of the situation to secure their positions, and make a serious competition for 1st XI places.
Windsor for the second week running picked up 25 points for the win , and now with only 9 points behind leaders Cookham Dean make Windsor real contenders for the League.