Victory from the jaws of defeat

Asked to bat on a difficult looking wicket Wargrave were soon in trouble when both openers were out inside the first 8 overs to the bowling of N Scott.
This brought Chris Lunn & Jon Colbourne to the crease. With some selective hitting and some solid defence they had moved the score along to 86 when Lunn was adjudged LBW to the spin of J Lincoln. Colbourne then reached his fifty with a nice pull over square leg only to be bowled the next ball by Loveday. The next 2 Wargrave wickets followed not long afterwards their innings looked in trouble at 120-5. But Simon French & Phil Drew steadied the innings and with rest of the lower order managed to get the score up to a respectable 201 all out in 50 overs. French finishing on 46no played a very sensible and important role for his team.

In reply Finch got off to a slow start with only 9 runs coming from the first 10 overs. This was due to some tight bowling by Smith & Walker. Archie Withers replaced Walker and gradually the Finchampstead innings started to gain some momentum. The new ball was taken in the 14 over and this brought the game to life. French removed opener Eldridge then young Berkshire u13 opening bowler Jarryd Wallace took three quick wickets and the score after 20 overs was 75-5. Then a tremendous stand between R East & J Lincoln changed the game completely. Lincoln hitting the ball to all parts of the ground soon had the score board moving quickly, so much so that by over 36 the Finchampstead score had moved on to 165-5 and with only 36 to win. Then young Jarryd Wallace was reintroduced into the attack and the game changed straight away. His third ball of his new over was hit high up into the air. Emma Walker at mid-on ran round and took a great catch, this changed the game. Wallace then bowled Steve Scott to leave finch on 167-7. Jerry Smith then came on to bowl and had Finch skipper David Marles caught one handed by Scott Walker in the outfield and then Jon Colbourne caught Brown at short leg and the Finch innings was in tatters. In Wallace next over he removed N Scott off stump and Wargrave had won by 21 runs with Finchampstead finishing on 180 all out