Scorchio.

This was always going to be a tough day in 30+ degree heat. Unfortnately for Elstead Merrow won the toss and elected to field first.

Jack and Oli were given the honours of opening the batting for Elstead today, and both played very watchfully against the Merrow bowling. Although it felt as though we could be scoring at a higher rate, both Jack and Oli spent good time at the crease, building valuable experience. When Jack reached 11* from 30 balls he was retired not out, and Coen walked into the middle. Unfortunatley Coen was unlucky to get a rare striaght one, played too early on the shot as he tried to drive it to the boundry, and was bowled. Danny came in next, and wasted no time in tucking into the Merrow bowling. 3 lovely boundaries followed, but as has often been the case this season, Danny lived by the sword and died by the sword, clipping one up into the air and being well caught at mid-off for 13.

Stan came in nextand batted watchfully as Oli started to accelerate as he approached the 30-ball mark. Oli bludgeoned runs off his last 4 balls to end with a score of 18 returend not out off 31 balls faced. What happened next was a proper collapse. Against a bowler of no real pace, but good accuracy, Felix, Jake, Gabe and Lief all got out in the same over. 4 ducks, 3 of them golden, and an excellent 4-wicket madien from the Merrow bolwer. All except were Gabe clean bowled swiping at balls that they would have done better to defend. We will do a defensive batting re-set in training! Gabe was a little more unlucky than the others, playing the ball onto his own stumps, but will still rue his shot selection.

Suddenly Elstead were in real trouble at 72 for 6 off 15 overs. But that brought Benji to the crease to join Stan, and the two struck up a really good partnership, picking off singles at will, punctated with a few great shots for 4. Running between the wicket was a highlight, but also eventually brought the partnership to a close off the final ball. Stan had possibly been slipped some Red Bull or similar but decided he was on a mission to run as many byes as possible when the ball went through to the keeper. Running like a whippet and screaming instructions at the top of his lungs, he'd lapped Benji on the second run while simultaneously causing panic in the field. What should have been no runs became 2, and almost 3, but Benji became so incapacitated with laughter he was unable to run further and was run out. The pair had done magnificently to get Elstead up to a decent 120, with Stan unbeaten on 16*, and Benji also reaching 16 which is his highest score for Elstead and showed signs that many more runs will come from his bat.

Despite the now searing heat, 120 felt very defendable, and Elstead took the field knowing that if we bowled good lines and lengths like last weekend (when we defended 74), we should win. Fatigue had other ideas though, and our bowling was uncharacteristically wayward. This was not helpful for Coen, Danny and Stan who all did very well in stints as wicket-keeper given that neither of our regular keepers were avialable today, but unfortunately this was a day where the extras flowed....

Danny and Felix at least had some reward for their efforts, both getting wickets early in their spells, but Merrow's number 2 and 3 batsmen both made hefty run-a-ball scores (25 and 31* respectively). Both rode their luck at times. Danny found the edge on a couple of occasions, as did Stan, and Jake was unlucky to drop what would have been a great catch in the deep - but it wasn't Elstead's day. Unfortunately for every good ball (and we did bowl some snorters), there were two or three bad ones, and the byes, wides and no balls racked up.

Although #2 and #3 eventually left the middle, the next batters were only left with around 10 runs to get thanks to all the extras, and Merrow eased to victory inside 14 overs. This was a game that should have been much closer, and was definitely winnable for Elstead, but tired bowling given the heat probably cost us 30 or 40 runs. Danny ended up with decent figures of 1 for 3, and although Stan and Gabe also bowled well our overs were expensive. We shipped 50 extras (24 byes, 10 no balls, 15 wides and a leg bye) in the heat today at a rate that would have won Merrow the game had no batsman scored a run. We can bowl much, much better.

We can also help ourselves more in other areas. Some of our batters need to learn patience - to block the straight balls and wait for the bad ones to score from, and some of our bowlers were trying far too hard today - it was a day for pace-off, line and length bowling, which we didn't always get despite having rookie wicket-keepers behind the stunps. Its very tough in the heat though, so not being at our best was understandable. There were also some good performances - None of Jack, Oli, Stan or Benji looked like getting out today and all will have developed nicley from spending plenty of time out in the middle. Stan and Benji's partnership in particular was safe, composed, and kept the scoreboard ticking over at a healthy rate.

Players of the day as chosen by Merrow:
Batter = Danny
Bowler = Danny