Coming off the back of their first defeat in well over a year Sulhamstead were back at home against a Bagshot side who would leapfrog them if they were to win.

Sulhamstead lost the toss and were put into bat first in the sunshine, on a hard wicket.

Rob Wardle and Mark Gibson were the two openers. Rob was looking composed at the beginning of the match, feeling confident after a good Friday night training session, the fifth ball of the over he dispatched a lovely six, with great applause from the pavilion. The next ball was there to be dispatched again, unfortunately this time he mistimed the shot and it looped up high to the Bagshot captain who took an easy catch, 6 for 1 after the first over.

Mark then faced the other opener, a young 14 year old who was getting balls to leap up from a length, while also move away from the right handers. Mark defended his wicket, turning down the opportunity to be attacking, focusing on remaining at the crease. Jake was next to face he only lasted 4 balls before he too was dismissed, this time a low bounce caught him in front of the stumps, Sully were in big trouble at 6 for 2.

Captain Gibson entered and with advice from his brother they set about seeing off the opening bowlers. The balls were leaping and shooting all over the place, Mark had to wear a couple to his chest, but they stayed together for 11 overs, Ian then got a short pitched ball that never got more than 6 inches off the ground clean bowling him, the score was now 23 for 3, but the opening bowlers had been seen off.

The general feeling at the pavilion was we needed Mark to get a 50 to have any chance at all, and that if we could get to 120 we’d have done well and have something to bowl at.

Richie and Mark then changed our minds, putting the bowlers to the sword, batting beautifully they kept the scoreboard moving quickly, when Richie fell for a brilliant 27, the score had raced up to 111 for 3 with ten overs still to go, we were now thinking 150 was achievable.

There was a little flurry of wickets, as both Rupesh and Harrison fell without scoring. But that saw Jonny enter the field, with Bagshot thinking the end was in sight, he destroyed them. Mark took up a secondary role, just pushing singles to allow Jonny more balls to face. He hit 7 fours and 2 sixes as he raced to his first Suli 50. Mark remained unbeaten on a magnificent 88 batting through the entire innings. Sulhamstead finished 183 for 6.

Feeling confident we could defend 183 Sulhamstead had a small huddle, and talked about concentrating, encouraging and bowling well. Rob Wardle and Ian Gibson opened the bowling and kept it tight, making it hard for Bagshot to get the ball away, when the first bowling change happened after 11 overs Bagshot were 31 for 2.

Jonny and Rupesh then took over and again were bowling good lines, and with the uneven bounce Jonny was particularly hard to score off. Rupesh took a juggling caught and bowled just before drinks. Drinks came after 20 overs, with the score at 95 for 3 Bagshot’s batsmen were now settled at the crease and looking to score runs, it was time to change.

Richie and Finn came on for their 4 over stints, but each bowled so well that they ended up bowling their allotted 8 overs straight through. Richie picking up the dangerous number 7 who was looking to hit big, and Finn picking up three important wickets finishing with figures of 8-1-23-3.

Gibson came on to replace Richie, with Bagshot still feeling they had a chance, but a double wicket maiden in his comeback over took it away from them, Gibson finishing with 8-3-18-4. Bagshot were now chasing the impossible, they took a crazy run with just two balls left, leaving Robert Wardle the chance to run them out with a direct hit at the stumps – he didn’t fail. Bagshot were all out for 162.

We all contributed during today’s game, if you didn’t bat or didn’t bowl, you were still vital to our teams success. I’m think of players like Steve Phillips, who although didn’t bat or bowl, was a constant voice on the field, encouraging and offering advice, we needed that at times during the fielding. I think every over, eight of us had to run from one boundary to the other, there was no moaning, in fact some decided to race each other, to see who could get there first, that’s the team spirit we need, if we are to be successful on the pitch, well done 3’s.

MOTM: Mark Gibson