A chase too far

A blustery morning down by the river at Barn Elms had RCC away to Barnes. Jared won the toss and invited Barnes to bat. With apprentice scorer (Gibson senior) pencil in hand and at the ready, the game got underway.
Kalen opened the bowling with his trademark ferocity, sharp work in the field had the opener run out off the 5th ball, with just 2 runs on the board. The Barnes number 3 was a quality player, he soon amassed his 33 runs and retired. He was well supported by their No.2 and RCC were having trouble shifting either of them. At the halfway mark of the innings Jared got the breakthrough and bowled the No.2, sending middle stump flying. At 65 for 2 Barnes were in a commanding position. Henry B. came on to bowl from the Putney end and took a much needed wicket with his 4th ball. He followed this up with a plumb LBW in his next over (no need for any accusations of nepotism in that decision), and bowled tightly for 2 further overs with a Run Out for good measure. Henry B. finished the day with the best bowling figures of 4 overs, 2 wickets for 20 runs. The last 4 overs were back to Kalen and Toby and they saw 4 further wickets fall as the tail succombed. Barnes closed 136-9 having just clung on and used all of their 24 overs. A positive to take from our bowling is that there were only 25 extras, which is real progress from the 60s seen early in the season.

Having scored 140 earlier in the season this was going to be a tough chase but the game was winnable. Olly & Toby opened and kept us around the required rate for the first few overs. Toby was caught early on and in came Sam at No.3, if ever we needed a characteristic quick 30 from Sam, today was the day. Today was the day and 24 balls later he was on his way back out, bat under arm, head held high, 4 fours, yet another six and a few singles. At 65 from 10.1 overs we were ahead of the required rate but there was batting still to be done to secure the victory. Olly continued to bat steadily and finished with a vital 16. A few lean overs pushed the rate higher and drove the middle order to chase the quick singles, these in turn produced a succession of run outs. Max and Kalen both scored boundaries, but the game continued to slip away and out of our grasp. RCC closed at 112-7, 24 short of the target.

RCC should be pleased with a good team bowling performance, conceding few extras. Had we managed a couple of extra wickets early on, got Barnes all out and reduced the overs they faced, this would have been a very different game.
We continue to have work to do on our batting, getting power through the ball and finding the gaps in the field will bring the runs.

Man of the match: Sam