Petersfield 2s travelled to Hedge End to play 3rd placed Friends. With a rock hard outfield and a patchy dry pitch skipper Rich Stephens won the toss and put the opposition in.
Oscar Windebank (10 overs 1 for 29) and Nicky Caddick (5.5 / 2 / 29) opened the bowling and they were causing problems for the openers without any reward with both bowlers getting movement off the pitch. Nicky was taken off after 5 overs to be replaced by Frank Straw (7 / 2 / 33) as the pace attack continued. In Frank's 3rd over opener S Ward (22) played one too many lofted shots and was caught on the boundary at 3rd man by Oscar running to his right with the score on 37. This brought Friend's skipper Mutiti (the league's top scorer last season) to the crease but he only lasted 5 balls before Caddick took his outside edge into first slips hands who could only parry the ball up as it flew at him but Rich Stephens came round from 2nd slip to pouch the rebound.
Oscar then got his rewards for a fine controlled spell of bowling by removing J Abraham (12) clean bowling him with a beauty which hit the top of off giving the batsman no chance. Friends were 49-3. The scoring rate was up around 4.5 an over as Ali Asghar (56) came in and decided not to trust the pitch and attack the bowlers trying to put them off their stride. He put on 31 with F George (4) before Frank got one to bounce (again!) to give Will Jameson a simple catch. At drinks Friends were 96-4 with Asghar continuing to profit from his aggressive attitude. Chris Russell (5 / 2 / 20) was introduced and got immediate rewards bowling L Varghese (12) as he jumped outside off and lost his leg stump! Steve Gibson (5 / 3 / 15) then removed B Eaton (3) with an outside edge through to Jameson. Wickets continued to fall as Chris removed G Ward (0) as he spooned the ball to square leg. Then Steve had S Ward caught at 3rd man as Field finally removed the danger man. Steve then clean bowled Spencer (0) with a Jaffa, Nicky was brought back and he clean bowled I Peruzi to end the innings on 161 a tremendous effort from Field with a lightning fast outfield giving full value for your shots.
Rich Stephens (7) opened the batting with Will Rice (41) and the pair put on 32 for the first wicket in 6 overs before Stephens was caught in the covers. Chris Russell (9) continued the steady start as he and Will put on 28 in 5 overs before Chris got a Jaffa from Peruzi to be clean bowled. Will Rice and Will Jameson (34) steadied the ship before Asghar and Peruzi blew away the Field middle order as they went from 81-3 (when Rice fell) to 126-9 as the pitch started to misbehave more and more with deliveries taking off past batsmen's ears then shooting along the ground. As Nicky Caddick (1 not out) joined Frank Straw (43 not out) at the crease Field were 35 short with 11 overs left. Frank played a magnificent innings as he scored when he could and protected his number 11. The two Field players just concentrated on 1 over at a time and this approach worked fantastically as Friends went from thinking it was all over to realising the game was slipping away from them with Frank taking advantage of some tired/nervous bowling to score 9/7/6 off the last 3 overs as he saw Field home with 1 over to spare much to the delight of his team mates on the sidelines
The character in the 2s this season is a joy to behold and the skipper put this at the top of the 5 wins out 5 they have had this season. That character was optimised by Nicky Caddick a late call up who was probably the calmest player on the pitch at the end, probably the most important 1 not out in his career at Petersfield.
Well done lads
Men of the match Frank Straw and Nicky Caddick ably supported by the 2 Wills and Steve Gibson.
Champagne moment Rich Stephens rebound catch to remove Friend's skipper Mutiti for a duck
Scoreboard
http://petersfield.play-cricket.com/website/results/2363271
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