Match Report 08.06.2024, by George Yabsley
The Chargers returned to Varwell field hoping get back to winning ways after two defeats on the bounce, most recently a 5 wicket loss away to Paignton last Saturday.
South Devon were their opponents, who were also reeling from a less than satisfactory start to their season. They did however have two victories to their name so Ashburton needed to be on their guard.
Steve Edmonds and George Yabsley opened the batting on a very good pitch. They would be faced by Malcom Marshall’s grandson, Mali, who bowled impressively in his opening spell, but failed to dislodge either Edmonds or Yabsley.
The two openers had a field day. Edmonds made his half-century before a few overs before drinks, Yabsley made his just after, and after an opening stand of 146 for the first wicket, Ashburton were well in control.
The home crowd must have shifted uncomfortably in their seats when Bittu was dismissed quickly for no score, and Lloyd White for 16, leaving Ashburton 189-3. But Ash Berry and Matt Churchill were able to alleviate any concerns and navigated Ashburton to 244, before a Berry hoike meant that he departed for a well made 38. Churchill also attempted the audacious on the last ball of the innings to the demise of his stumps, and the home side finished their 45 overs on 254-7.
South Devon needed a good start in reply, but managed anything but. It is said in cricketing circles that a certain type of delivery gets wickets, and the first ball after tea was no different. A Ryan May full toss at knee height brought in a tentative shot from the South Devon opener, and was gratefully caught by Chris Yeo at forward square leg.
The away side managed to recover however, and made 57 before May struck twice more, breaching the defences of both Evans and Marshall. That left South Devon at 90-3, and on paper the game was still in the balance. Alas, chairman Chris Yeo felt otherwise, who depleted not only South Devon wickets, but seemingly their resolve too. His 9 over spell brought him 6 wickets at the expense of just 16 runs, and South Devon were bowled out for 136, earning Ashburton a 118 run victory.
A very convincing performance from the 1st XI, who are back on the road to Yelverton next Saturday.
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WFjy8V7rW4
====
Ashburton 2nd XI travelled to play top of the league Plymouth Civil service and Roborough CC in what would not only be an amazing game but the most satisfying win in a long while according to some of the players, writes AJ West.
With Plymouth CS&R being undefeated so far this season Ashburton knew it would be an uphill battle but one that they could win. Plymouth CS&R won the toss and elected to bat planning to set a total. With a long outfield 150+ would be a defendable score.
To bowl the 1st over was Marcus West (Westy) getting Ashburton off on the right tone with a maiden. From the other end Matt Partridge was bowling taking the wicket of N Zamal (2) in his first over. Westy continued strong finishing with ridiculous stats of 8 overs for only 1 run with 7 maidens however he was also the only bowler to not take a wicket.
AJ West (1 for 37) then came on to bowl taking over from Matt also taking a wicket in their first over with a caught and bowled of A Vickery (3) leaving the hosts 15-2 in the 12th. Plymouth CS&R batters M Ball and S Koka (9) steadied the ship a bit for them before S Koka fell in the 25th to Rob Lambert (1 for 27) leaving the hosts 58-3. The next batter in was J Ismail who whacked a quickfire 31 off 27 before getting caught by Westy off Nat Wood’s bowling.
This got M Ball to start having a go rapidly increasing the host's score but with the batters at the other end continuously falling it meant the game was not running away from Ashburton. Jack Lewis (2 for 31) and Nat (2 for 45) managed to get the next few wickets before Matt came back on at the end to bowl and in the final over got the wicket of M Ball who scored 94 off 114. The hosts finished on 173 for 8 off their 40 overs.
Opening the batting for Ashburton is skipper Phil Pascoe at 1 and AJ West at 2. With a big total to chase a good start was key and that’s exactly what the pair did. Running quick singles and 2s the openers managed to put on 43 for the first wicket inside 10 overs when Phil (28) got caught off P White (2 for 18) followed 2 overs later by AJ (5) top edging one off P White leaving the visitors 46-2 off 11 overs.
A rebuild by Westy and Adam Seedhouse-Evans took Ashburton to 75 before Westy (16) was caught of the bowling of T Palmer (2 for 21) and 3 balls later Matt Partridge was bowled by T Palmer for a 3 ball duck. Having been put on the back foot due to a couple of quick wickets Adam and new batter Gordon Colwill (Gordy) needed to dig in and build a crucial partnership to get Ashburton back in the game. This is exactly what they did for a while defending the good balls and hitting the bad ones before Adam (37) unluckily hit one onto his pad that then trickled onto the stumps off the bowling of V Rajaraman (1 for 29). Gordy (10) fell the next over to N Zamal and with two new batters at the crease Rob Lambert (Lambo) and Nat Wood still needing 58 in 9 overs the game looked out of Ashburton's reach. Lambo (5) was soon found hit on the pads in front of middle stump by N Zamal (2 for 35) and Nat was bowled by M Ball (1 for 38).
It was Jack Lewis and Greg Robinson at the crease needing 49 off 4.4 overs. With Greg suffering from a leg injury quick singles were not an option and 2s would be a struggle. Plymouth CS&R had clearly thought they had won (in fairness Ashburton thought they had lost) as their captain yelled off the pitch “When we win make sure the bar stays open until 10”. Their Wicket Keeper had sledged the Ashburton side throughout the game and was now taking the mick at the end. Something clearly just went in Greg. Plymouth CS&R put a heavy legside field to Greg thinking he could only have one shot with how he held the bat, so Greg then whacked the ball through the offside. The field swiftly returned to normal, so Greg started hitting the ball down the ground for boundaries. Clearly realizing they may have been too cocky saying they had already won Plymouth CS&R put practically every fielder on the boundary for the last 2 overs as Ashburton still needed 33 to win.
Jack Lewis (3*) got Greg back on strike where ignoring the fielders hit N Zamal for 3 sixes before getting a single to be on strike for the final over. All of a sudden Plymouth CS&R were silent in the field with opening bowler M Ball to bowl the last over with the visitors requiring 13 to win. Greg hit 6, 2, 4 and then a single to win the game for Ashburton, finishing on 46 off 19. What a game to win.
After the game Skipper Phil Pascoe said “Well, well well. To those who were involved today it was an amazing game, bowling: Westy 8 overs for 1 run (welcome back!!), catches all around the field, close and in the deep, wickets for the young guns and then the second half. That to the umpires, we had to provide 2 for the second half and those who kept the book & electronic book & board ticking. A good solid batting performance, with a sprinkling of runs for, shout out to Adam for the excitement of some big 6’s, and sensible batting throughout by many others..... And then there’s injured Greg, desperate to play, can’t run, can barely walk, who quite literally batted IPL style to win a game that PCS&R had already claimed victory on... honestly I have never seen such an amazing 3-4 overs in a game of club cricket. For those who have seen a lot of cricket, very impressive, for those young guns there today, you should never give up until it’s over.”
Scorecard: Ashburton CC (play-cricket.com)
Comments