A thundery shower at 1pm gave the players time to take in the wonderful setting with the ground nestled between the River Thames, the railway line & Windsor Castle. As the pitch was left to dry out 1 of the 2 3am casualties of the James Smith birthdaybash at Madame Jojos said "where's the castle?" Truly the finest sign of approval of the previous night !
As no further rain arrived, the game finally got underway at 3pm reduced to 30 overs. Darryl Roberts was at his parsimonious best with able support from Jon Brown + excellent ground fielding lead by Matt Callender & Joe Bennett, scoring was extremely difficult. 14-1 after 7 overs & 32-1 when Roberts' & Brown's spells concluded.
With Captain Steve Lay needing to fill a 5th bowler slot Matt Holliday & Peter Hollman were unable to maintain the same grip & opener Thorpe who had patiently played himself in was able to score freely on any long hop or half volley now being offered. The skipper who had held back Jon Webley & Rob Bastin then saw his tactics pay off with aplomb.
With 10 overs remaining & acceleration from 79-1 required by the home side, Bastin & Webley cleaned up taking 3-6 & 4-16 respectively. The innings closing with 2 wickets to Webley from the last 2 balls thanks to smart catches from Hollman & Adrian Duthie who pocketed his third of the match. Only the rock of Thorpe who had scored 56* & Moores's 22 had held Pacific up in a card that included 6 ducks. The Cranbourne inn ings had been descimated at 80-1 to 103-8 including 4 wickets for 1 run.
A tea time shower took yet more pace off the pitch & a tight match looked in the offing. Steve again held back his key cards & an inexperienced middle order was exposed to tight spells from Powell, Twitchen & Spencer. Despite the modest target, enough panic was induced as 3 run outs illustrated.
At the top of the order Adrian Duthie played out the Thorpe anchor role but it was his departure lbw to Spencer that began the run out parade. Only at 66-7 with 8 overs to go was full order restored & needless to say it was Bastin & Webley re-united at the crease. Again Steve Lay had out manouevred his counterpart who were down to their 5th & 6th bowling options & the form ability of Pacific's match winners saw the visitors home with 7 balls & 3 wickets to spare
XI:-Joe Bennett, Matt Callender, Adrian Duthie, Matt Holliday, Moses Hutchinson-Pascal+, Steve Lay*, Darryl Roberts, Jon Webley, Jon Brown, Peter Hollman & Rob Bastin .
STATS CORNER. Jon Webley who took 2 wickets is on a hattrick in his next match AND his next evening league match when he did the same at the Squirrels cup game on the preceeding Tuesday.
