Regatta Way wacking

The promotion hunting Seconds turned up at Regatta Way to play S&G hopeful of a good outcome but sadly they were soundly beaten, took away only 3 points and drop to 4th with, importantly, WBs 11 points ahead in second. It is not a disaster but any more slip ups suggest the team will fall short.

I arrived with the Ells 61-2 off 19 with Alan Lewis and Gagan Sehmbi building a partnership but finding headway against spinners Qayyum and Aqeel a bit of a problem. A couple of positive overs against the former got some momentum but crucially Gagan was bowled when the score was 88 (26th over) and then "Chewy" (another 50) was pinned in front by Aqeel (103-4 off 30). At this point the innings stalled. Maneesh Mishra played nicely but Ryan Duggan could not get going at all and the same applied to Vivek Parekh when Maneesh was leg before just when he was opening up a bit. So, 122-6 off 38. With a fast outfield this looked sickly. Enter skip Eddy G and the return of the opening bowlers. Ed used their pace, adopted a hustling approach and raced to 25 in 19 balls but was 178 enough?

At first I was hopeful. The Seconds have good attack, albeit winning most games chasing. We know Aqeel is dangerous but he played and missed at Eddy G quite often, in between picking up on any wayward lines. Usman Aziz kept it tight with 3 maidens in his first 4 overs but he went for 13 in his 5th and Taimoor Tasnim failed to settle and leaked 23 in his first 3 overs. Drinks at 15 overs (pretty warm) saw S&G strongly placed at 74-0 with Steve Carmody now punching the ball for regular boundaries after a slow start. It was now or never - and it was never as the returning captain was dispatched high over mid wicket in successive balls by Aqeel. It was good to see true Ells legend Phil Lafbery in action but he could not stem the tide as the home team positively sprinted to victory. By this stage the Firsts were turning up after the swift dispatch of Collingham looking forward to a contest but instead seeing a host of catches dropped and a rather shambolic finish. The game was lost with 18 overs to play with! Ouch!