Rain spoils thrilling climax

SLOUGH 228-5 (Raja 117) (52)
WINDSOR 186-7 (Watkins 64*) (42) Match Abandoned due to rain

A determined downpour late in the evening on Saturday night denied both sides the chance of winning a great game of cricket as first vs second took on each other in division 4b.

Winning the toss Slough decided to bat first on a track that was flat and full of bounce as Chris Edge and Alex Hill both enjoyed the initial fast and bouncy deck. However once the batsmen got their eyes in on this pitch with the lightening fast outfield it looked like a batsmans paradise. An early breakthrough from Edge could not temper Raja at the other end as he hooked and pulled Alex Hill with impunity smashing him out of the attack. After 20 overs Slough had reached 90-1 and a score of 250+ looked on the cards. Looking to take the speed of the ball the spin duo of Deri Watkins and Amit Subarker brought the run rate down although not losing wickets Slough looked to accelerate the scoring. Some good outfielding despite a few missed chances in the field however kept the total down and after scoring a superb 117 Raja was finally stumped from Watkins and Windsor were then able to turn the screw on the new pair and suddenly the 260 Slough may have hoped for was kept down to 228.

Opener Andrew Chorley continued where he left off last week creaming some superb boundaries off the accurate Slough opening attack and after 10 overs were looking good at 43-0. However Chorley committed suicide cricket taking on a run that was never there and Slough got their tails up. Tim Smith cracked a couple of sweetly timed boundaries before toeing one back to the bowler and Rob Woodward was expertly run out by a superb piece of Slough fielding to put the game back in the balance. Tom Bullock was forced to retire hurt after being hit ‘admidships’ but this brought the hard hitting Deri Watkins to the crease as Windsor began to get after the scoring. The dismissal of Paul Huggins saw a turn in the game as Noble scored a painfully slow 2 runs from 28 balls against the seam of Slough skipper Sheppard and this upped the run rate to over a run a ball. Noble’s dismissal was followed quickly by the returning Bullock but Waktins was now in his element and began smashing Shepard and the experienced Salmon around the ground and looking comfortable. This looked to setup a grandstand finish with Windsor requiring 7 runs an over from the remaining 6 with 3 wickets in hand. However, the overcast clouds which had been threatening all day decided to intervene and although both sides were eager to get back out, the rain had simply come too late in the day and the match had to be abandoned.