In his first appearance as captain for Pacific, Jon Webley led the team to a well earned victory against a confident Broxbourne side. Everyone contributed in some way and not a single catch was put down.
Batting first, Pacific kept the run rate ticking along at just under 4 an over for the first 15 overs from Broxbourne’s tidy opening pair of Stone and White. Despite a few missed chances, Broxbourne’s fielding was superb throughout and Pacific struggled to convert very many singles into two’s. At 57/3 off 16, Webley was keen to accelerate the run rate and a change of bowling helped.
Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals though until a useful partnership between Rees and Webley steadied the innings. Still aiming for something over 200, Adam Long and John Baglivi batted confidently to quickly put on nearly 30 runs for the penultimate partnership. Long’s departure was quickly followed by Baglivi leaving older brother Frank stranded on 0 with 2 overs to go and 192 on the board. The track had proved to be suited to spin with Broxbourne’s spinners Close and Dawson tacking 6 wickets between them.
Broxbourne started confidently with Dawson regularly achieving boundaries. An early breakthrough from Rees followed by a series of wickets through well taken catches by Sammy Purcell coming off Rajaraman’s economical spin, Pacific’s until now undiscovered bowling talent, swung the game in Pacific’s favour.
The wily John Baglivi restricted Dawson’s run chase and with the pressure mounting, Broxbourne began to collapse as Webley, Rajaraman and John Hill demonstrated their safe hands. On his debut outing for Pacific, Aussie Alex McKillop made short work of Broxbourne’s tail order taking 4 wickets for only 13 runs. At 134 Broxbourne were 59 runs short of the total required with another 7.5 overs to go. A great result for Pacific!
XI:- John Baglivi, Shayne Rees, Frank Baglivi+, Joe Bennett, Adam Long, Rob Woodcock, Alex McKillop, John Hill, Jai Rajaraman, Jon Webley* & Sammy Purcell.
