On a hard wicket with little seam movement the opening bowlers Rob Sullivan (15-3 for 63) and J Woodley (6 overs-0 for 20) bowled a little wayward however Rob Sullivans early breakthrough was a good start to proceedings.

Ipswich bounced back a little with a partnership 48 before their next wicket fell, Rob Sullivan removing the other opener to a slower delivery that kicked off a good length, caught by N Winter at gully.

Ipswich then put on what should have been a match winning partnership of 126 runs for the third wicket. However good bowling from Dan Webb and S Youngs restricted what looked to be a score of 250/260 to 5 for 211. Nurul Hoque (5 overs – 2 for 26) played a key role in restricting the opposition by removing two middle batsmen, the first was a slower delivery lofted to cover and the second a caught and bowled.

Ipswich 5 for 211.

S Youngs (24) looked solid as ever and timed both opening bowlers well until a full length delivery which Simon attempted to turn off of the stumps caught an inside and played on. N Winter (126 N.O) and Martin Wilkins (44 N.O) brought us home with the loss of one wicket for 213.

A resounding victory that saw Martin Wilkins play each ball on its merits often defensively blocking out 3 or 4 deliveries in a row, then crashing an over pitched delivery through covers. Solid support from Martin meant that Neil could concentrate on his own game and that he did extremely well. Neil batted for 37.4 overs and accelerated at the most perfect time. He didn’t hit any individual bowler out of the attack but when you review the bowling figures for the match you can see he attacked each bowler with the same ferocity. A superb innings.

Personal comments:

On the field on Saturday we were very flat both in terms of verbal support for each other and general atmosphere as well as the standard of fielding and bowling. We have won 10 out of 10 games but we are not streaks ahead of the opposition and we are certainly not unbeatable.

A poor bowling and fielding performance put our lighter than usual batting line-up under immense pressure. If we had lost a few early wickets we would have been relying on batsmen who have not spent a lot of time at the wicket to make good scores chasing 211.

Players can’t just expect to turn up and win games.

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