Sunday XI vs Waverley

The team line up appeared to have the perfect combination of youth and experience and it proved to be so, as the Sundays convincingly beat Waverley. In a Sunday first, we had a toss, lost and got put in to bat. Stand in skipper, Pete, decided to start with experience and finish with youth, so he and Paul opened the batting, both players striking the ball confidently to the boundary at regular intervals to keep the run rate at over a run a ball. Pete retired at 50. It was hot work, Paul was getting thirsty and couldn't wait for the drinks break at 17 overs, so got out one ball before on 40 runs. Steve and Shaun both contributed runs, then Dicky came in and played some classy cover drives (another Sunday first!), ending up on 40 runs too. Then came the youngsters, who have clearly benefitted from some excellent Elstead coaching. Highlights were Luke striking a cover drive over the top, Joe coming down the wicket and smashing a pull shot for 4, Charlie attempting a scoop on his first ball, then getting out to another scoop shot on his 6th and Jack scooping a boundary over his left shoulder.
Elstead finished on a creditable 208 all out off their 35 overs. With rumours of Waverley's opening batsman playing for Guildford 1sts, Elstead started with a strong attack of Jack and Charlie. Jack got the other opener lbw early on with a beautiful swinging delivery and Charlie bowled fast and aggressively, but the runs kept coming (mostly from one player!). At 60 for 1 off 11 overs it looked like it might be a close one. Sam and Archie were unable to make the breakthrough, so Elstead tried the spin duo of Joe and Luke instead. Joe's 60mph off-spin did the trick, bowling the opener for an impressive 63 runs. Luke then bowled 7 overs of brilliant leg spin that bamboozled the opposition, taking two wickets for 19 runs. Joe took one more, finishing with figures of 4 overs 2 for 7. Archie came back on, pitched the ball up and conceded only 5 runs from his final 4 overs. Shaun kept wicket brilliantly and Waverley's valiant attempt came up 50 runs short.