| Report |
Dave Males and Laurie West opened on what proved to be a classic early season pitch - very green, slow, low and lots of swing and seam movement. Males perished first to the economical Phil Park (12 overs for 11 runs) caught at first slip for a duck. Riley was next in and then out for 0 a couple of overs later, lbw to Park and Neven raised the dreaded finger. Barrett joined West and they stabilised the innings, though not scoring many runs, as the score crept to 13 from the first 12. West was next to go, playing a lovely cut shot but caught at point for 5. Smart was pressed into action and pushed up the order, but with little success, playing on for 0. The stand-in captain Jon Dixon finally entered the game, and got off the mark with a typical straight drive for six, alas tragedy struck in the next over when Barrett called him through for a second run with the ball in the fielder's hands, and the big man was run out with 11 yards to spare.
Sammi then showed it wasn't that difficult to score runs with a rapid 17, including a slog sweep for six. He was undone by the introduction of 14-year old leg spinner, Arnold, who bowled him with a quicker delivery, which kept low and the Sri Lankan played back to. Neven was next in, but survived only a few balls before he too was bowled by Arnold's quick one. Barrett was the next to fall to Arnold's leggies, this time managing to play on to his wrong 'un, for a gritty 14 from nearly 30 overs. Whisker and Strong then attempted a mini-fightback and at least got the score past 50, until Olly played all round a straight one. Morris was the last man in and with Dan helped Triangle onto 65, before Arnold tempted him with a slow, short ball and his top-edged pull shot was caught just inside the boundary ropes.
Quick wickets were needed and Sammi nearly delivered, but the usually reliable Males dropped a catch at slip. Cranborne then looked to finish Triangle off quickly, but were pegged back by Dicko at the other end. However, it was Strong who got the first wicket, brought on for Sammi who had been hit for a couple of fours, his first delivery short and wide of off stump got what it deserved, but then he found his line a bowled the opener Poore. Dicko's plan had worked, so he immediately rested Dan after one over and brought Sammi back into the attack. The Sri Lankan sensation once more proved mostly too good for Cranborne's men to get their bat on the ball, with one edge dropping just short of Neven and then Riley was brought into 2nd slip and almost held onto a diving catch.
It was Dicko who claimed the next wicket of French thanks to a fine reaction catch by Barrett fielding at short cover, who picked up a hard hit shot that seemed destined for the boundary, barely a couple of inches off the ground. The veteran spinner then bowled Foster, who had earlier survived a close run out call. Triangle's nemesis with the ball, Park, with Payne was able to see the home side to victory without too much fuss. Cranborne proved the pitch still held some demons as they took nearly 19 overs to reach the low target, but it showed a score of around 130-150 would have given Triangle a good chance of a win, or at least more than the one point gained.
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