A crucial toss dictated the pattern of the game for the 1st hour & opening bowlers Addison & Madelin were certainly able to exploit generous seam & swing movement as P struggled to see off the new ball.
P 136-10. C Pettet 39. R Charlton 9-1-28-4.
C 130-9. D Addison 38*. N Wilkinson 11-2-25-3
Wiehahn & Holiday's 1st wicket partnership of 100 last week was 99 runs less when Holiday was clean bowled by the left armer 1st ball. The going was slow for P as the batters dug in , Steve Lay making 7 in 70 minutes from 60 balls - but when Guy Wiehahn was out, Colin Pettet batted fearlessly & took the attack to the bowlers. His dismissal at 81 was the 6th wicket to fall & P looked a long way from finding a defendable total. More consolidation as the tail, marshalled by Hollman (23*) particularly with Mike Alexander (6) 31 for the 9th wicket, & a modest total was set.
With the seam flattened & the sun out, Matthew Ralph (11-5-16-1) & Marcel Boonaerts (11-2-29-1) extra pace did excellent containment work but only when Rob Allum (8) controversially given LBW at 32 did P feel that this was not a losing cause. In fact, excellent ground fielding, in particular by Wiehahn, Jonathan Stubbs & Pettet left the batters feeling runs would continue to be hard to come by. Mike Alexander 's double wicket breakthrough. incl a tremendous caught & bowled to dismiss Jacobs (18) broke the back of the top order. Captain Wilkinson then raised his own standing with a tremendous display of control & accuracy & despite some lusty hitting from Addison , in particular 2 huge 6s over backward square off Rees, P clawed their way back in. In fact the game ebbed & flowed that 87-7 with 8 overs P were favourites.
The final over from Boonaert began with 3 wickets in hand with 9 runs required but following a run out & the lbw of Chigwell Captain Richard Charlton to Boonaert P still had 3 balls to win it. Unfortunately, a leg bye off Andy Ramsey at no 11 in the 2nd of those & Addison played out the last ball with 7 still required. By the end both sides agreed the draw was the fairest result. vice Captain Peter Hollman agreed "it was a tense match & I'm amazed our bowlers did so well to defend such a humble total - we did have chances & if a chance at mid wicket had been held to dismiss Addison with 5 overs to go, we may have broken through - but no complaints - the ground fielding was top notch & it was the 1st time we've lost more than 5 wickets all season. A crucial toss but a fair result."
P: G Wiehahn, M Holliday+, S Lay, C Pettet, J Stubbs, M Ralph, P Hollman, M Boonaert, S Rees, M Alexander, N Wilkinson*.
