Following a disappointing opening game defeat against MK City in which Dan Course’s bowling was the only real highlight, Elstow’s first eleven made the trip to the other Milton Keynes looking for a positive result. Surprisingly MK chose to bat and Elstow old guard opening bowlers Tony Harps & Big Al Phillips started their work. Elstow were quickly in the wickets with Al miserly and Harps attacking.
At first change Hani for Al, MK were 50 for 4 and reeling. Al with 1 and Harps with 3. Hani fired up the batters and got his reward. JT then joined the attack and bowled good off spin. Tebbs replaced Thiarra and snared 2 of his own after 3 accurate overs that Harps would have been proud of. JT mopped up the tail. Excellent fielding from R Thiarra with a skier in the deep Dan Wiss at 2nd slip and Chress at mid off!!!! (See DoD later)
Harps 4 / 30
Al 1 / 15
Hani 1 / 30 odd
JT 2 / 20 odd
Tebbs 2 / 9
MK were done for at 128 all out, so Elstow had 12 overs to survive before tea. Chress and Ridds looked to get the job done and a quick fire start put Elstow in control. Old trigger soon changed things as Ridds for a nice 20 odd, Dan, Chress and Thiarra H all went in quick succession. Stevens and Couling looked to survive for the buns but Couling was done with Elstow at 60 for 5.
After a nice tea Stevens set about shutting up shop whilst Thiarra R (see M.O.M later) grew in confidence. A 50 partnership in which Thiarra led the way with cuts and drives both side of the wicket almost took Elstow home. Thiarra got a good’en though and JT (sledged out), before Tebbs joined the skip to steadily ease over the line with 3 wickets and 25 overs to spare.
MoM – R Thiarra – caught MK’s best batsmen in the deep and scored a fluent 31 to get Elstow out of trouble and close to the finish line
DoD – Chress – Harps new best mate at mid off. Rani and Tebbs showed him how to field in the 2nd half of the innings.
25 points in the bag….boy!
