Petersfield 2s vs Rotherwick ITW

Petersfield 2s vs Rotherwick ITW 

The Mighty 2s beat Rotherwick at the Heath last weekend in a dramatic finish played out in torrential rain and near darkness.

Losing the toss and inevitably asked to bat on a showery, dismal day, ‘Field got off to a slow start, losing Matt Salmon early for 12. Fellow opener Alex Thomas took until the first rain stoppage to get off the mark, but then played increasingly fluently in an impressive partnership with Chris Russell.

The pair put on 153 and looked in little difficulty as they rotated the strike and put away the bad ball, so it was something of a surprise when Thomas top-edged a sweep to short fine-leg for 52. Russell then pushed the scoring along and expertly marshalled the tail on his way to a superb, unbeaten 118, an innings of the highest class.

‘Field finished on 237 for 6, their highest total of the season batting first and surely a match-winning one... or was it?

Tea was taken early as the weather closed in, and it was raining quite heavily as Rotherwick started their reply. Conditions worsened as the afternoon drew on – at one stage the covers were being dragged on and off quicker than a pair of a you-know-what’s drawers – and when the ground was hit by a particularly heavy downpour at the 17-over mark, it looked that Petersfield, well on top at this stage, would be denied a vital victory and the match abandoned. 

The ‘Field players refused to leave the pitch as the rain teemed down (apart from Doddy, who was heard to mutter “**** this was a laugh” before retiring to the warmth of the pavilion for a fag). And when the rain somehow stopped momentarily, immediately off came the covers and unbelievably it was game on – again.

With the calculators out, the equation was this: Rotherwick needed 146 off 23 overs to win this rain-reduced game. At this point they were behind the rate thanks to skilful bowling from Ben Cox and Nick Woodruff, but some superb hitting from veteran opener Buccingham (69) put Rotherwick right back in it. This was suddenly going right down to the wire. 

Despite some tight seam-up bowling at the death by Chris Russell and Richard Stephens, with the pressure mounting all the time, backed by some heroic fielding on the boundary from Cox and Nigel Straw in particular, 8 needed off the last over became 2 off the last ball.

Stephens took the ball. He paused at the top of his run-up, gimlet-eyed, as the rain poured down. The batsman fidgeted at the other end and adjusted his pads. This was cricket not as a team game (none of the fielders were able to see the ball anyway in the gathering gloom) but mano-a-mano, man-to-man. Who would prevail? 

Stephens skipped in, the ball pitched, seamed away slightly, the batsman swung.... and missed. ‘Keeper Thomas gathered the ball, decided against throwing down the stumps (wisely), sprinting up to demolish them instead. Batsman run out and a breathless victory to Petersfield.

This was a superb game of club cricket, played in a wonderful spirit by two teams going all-out to win. Full credit to Rotherwick and also to their umpire, who was scrupulously fair in allowing both teams every chance to push for victory in the wettest playing conditions that anyone could remember, more suitable by the end for wallowing hippos than highly-toned, mud-spattered athletes (ahem...)

This tremendous win for the 2s may not be enough to stave off relegation but it was a desperately determined, fighting performance, and also one of great skill, and the team should take great pride in it.

http://petersfield.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11731612