1s disappointing against Byfleet

After the tremendous start we’ve had during the limited overs portion of the league, we were brought back down to earth with a massive thud with our first game of the timed portion of the league. On a sunny, but cool afternoon next to the M25, the skipper again lost the toss and was inserted. Turns out it was a bad toss to lose as the pitch dried out and played a lot better during the second innings. RCC started off cautiously due to some low and inconsistent bounce and after the early loss of a wicket, Phil Dorsett and Aaron Brook began to consolidate. Due to quite a lush outfield and despite short square boundaries, even the most well-timed shots were pulling up short. Unfortunately both Aaron and Phil departed, but Sacha Hatteea then took over. However, after Sacha was out, we capitulated very badly, moving from 109 for 4 to 116 all out. All in all, a very poor effort.

After tea, we were all up to the challenge knowing that some early wickets would make the oppo nervous. We started with the old ball, hoping that the lack of bounce in the track would be further highlighted with an older ball, but its amazing what a few hours of sun can do and the pitch and outfield had dried up quite nicely. We got the early wicket that we were after, but that only brought to the wicket Byfleet’s South African overseas player who took a liking to our bowling and hit a very solid ball. A consolation wicket for Will Hunting, but just not enough runs on the board and in no time at all, Byfleet had reached the target and RCC had suffered quite a large defeat.

On the plus side, we did make it back to Roehampton to watch a very exciting end to the 2s game (unfortunately, that result didn’t quite go the right way either).