Little Bardfield Village CC vs. Elmstead CC 1st XI
Date: 22nd June 2024
Venue: Elmstead
Toss: Little Bardfield won the toss and chose to bowl
This week Little Bardfield travelled to fellow 2023 Div 2 relegationists Elmstead CC in a lower table clash with both teams looking to put distance between themselves and the bottom two.
As has been tradition this season, Bardfield arrived to dark clouds and the threat of rain ruining the day. However, following a brief delay to the start the game, but with chance of more showers later in the day, it was agreed to shorten the game to 35 overs a side. Rory won the toss for Bardfield and invited Elmstead to bat first.
Bardfield were excited at the prospect of debutant bowler Jahan Zadram joining the side following a speed spell of net bowling earlier in the week, so threw him the ball to open alongside old hat Matt Graham. Both began well but the Elmstead openers soon found their feet and began to capitalise on a good batting track. That was until captain Hitchcock broke the deadlock with an inspired piece of idiocy involving him dropping a sitter, swiping the ball away in disgust prompting the Elmstead batter to rub salt into the wounds by stealing a single whilst the ball travelled incredibly slowly back towards the bowler – more accurately actually towards the non-strikers end stumps as the ball eventually rest up to the stumps dislodging the bails with Loveless (9) run out just short of his ground.
Cawley (13) fell soon after edging a Mohammad Khan delivery to Daryl Hymas at first slip before Khan struck again claiming the scalp of other opening batter Jordan Elliott (30) with a short ball nicely caught by Shehzad Mohammad on the square leg boundary. O'Brien (7) followed to a smart catch from Jack Davies from captain Hitchcocks bowling before Scarff (20) and Worsley (24) set about growing the lead. An inspired two over second spell from Zadran brought the end to both batters' innings as he claimed three Elmstead wickets in quick succession. The Elmstead tail wagged but wickets continued to fall with the home side eventually being bowled out for 167 from 29.1 overs. Zadram ended with 3 for 27, Khan 3 for 37, and one wicket a piece for Hitchcock (1-32), Owen (1-12) and Muhammad (1-38).
In response Bardfield decided that the previous games experiment bumping Khan to opening for him to return a century would be worth repeating. Could lightning strike twice? Well no, unfortunately not as he was caught for 10, prompting an emphatic celebration and send off from a number of Elmstead players who were clearly excited to have achieved the early dismissal. Rory Hitchcock joined Matt Graham at the crease to form the usual opening partnership, runs were slow to come by but the score trickled up before Hitchcock fell to an O'Brien catch from the bowling of Jordan Elliott. Daryl Hymas chalked up his first duck of the season with a brilliant caught and bowled from Anil Bokam. Joe Owen and Will Slemmings both added 18 runs each taking the score into three figures. Jack Davies added a valuable 6 before he was run out desperately trying to edge the score closer to a win. This brought Stu Noble who continue to run well and blasted an expert straight drive 4 to bring the Oxslips needing just 2 from the last over which was achieved with 5 balls to spare. Oh and opening batter Matt Graham managed an unbeaten 72. Pick of the bowlers was Jordan Elliott (2-31) alongside Pushman (1-25), Bokam (1-33), Joshua Elliott (1-38) and Jerome (0-35).
An incredibly valuable 20 points for Bardfield ahead of a challenging fixture against Long Melford, currently sitting second in the table, at the Fortress next week.