Portchester A v Sarisbury Athletic - 20.01.08

Portchester A (23pts) - 86 for 1 (8 ov) beat Sarisbury Athletic (3pts) - 83 for 5 (12 ov)
Match report by Paul Hungerford

After a 2 month break from the Indoor League, the A Team came back to face a Sarisbury side struggling at the wrong end of the table. The Sarisbury captain won the toss and elected to bat. Craig Coward and Rob Fackrell (3 overs for 16) got the innings off to a tight start, with Sarisbury scoring 31 off the first 5 overs. However it was Shaun Kelly (3 overs 28 for 2) that made the breakthrough with his 3rd ball - caught and bowled and he took another in the same manner. Shaun was well supported by Paul Hungerford (3 overs 22 for 1). Craig came back in to the attack to bowl the penultimate and once again his figures were excellent, 3 overs for just the 15 runs. A couple of late run-outs, as Sarisbury tried to get to a competitve total allowed us to take 5 wickets. P Friedrich was the main contributor to their final total of 83 for 5 with 38*.

Generally the fielding was good, (although I misfielded a ball that went for 4 and dropped a catch - both of Shaun. Whoops!!) but most pleasing was that we only gave 15 in extras.

 So in reply 84 was needed to win the game. Steve O’Neill and Lee Hungerford opened the batting. Steve was out LBW for 13, which brought Shaun to the crease. Lee and Shaun batted sensibly to see the innings home in the 8th over and secure us the maximum 6 batting points. Shaun finishing on 9* and Lee on 18*. Lee’s batting average is now a ‘Bradmanesque’ 101. (He made me write that by the way - at least it keeps him happy!!). Once again though the ever reliable Extras helped us out with 50 to take away any pressure and help us secure a comfortable win.