Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas 2nd X1 147 for 9 lost to Pinatar Pirates CC 148 for 4
Pinatar made the trip up to the Woodbridge Oval for a top of the table clash against early pacesetters Sporting Alfas. With Pinatar in 2nd place and with 2 games played less than Alfas, this game could see the teams swap places depending on the result.
Winning the toss, Pinatar had no hesitation to put Alfas into bat to see what sort of total they could post. With a strong bowling lineup, Alfas decided to go for experience at the top of the order with Evans partnering ever present McKinnstry.
Both batsmen got off to tentive starts, scoring slowly due to the accuracy of Banks at the bottom end mainly. Pinatar got their breakthrough in the 9th over when Evans offered a chance that was taken in the field to end his innings on 4, 16/1 off 9.
Things did not get much better for the Alfas top order as in the very next over, Banks added wickets to his accuracy and saw both McKinnstry (4) and K. Perman (0) depart, both clean bowled 18/3 after 10 overs. Byrne joined Wajid at the crease and between them they looked to get the innings back on track, doubling the score before Wajid (8) fell to a catch off the bowling of L. Brown, 47/4 off 17. Jack Perman joined Byrne at the crease but in Brown’s next over, Byrne (18) just managed to get the nick through to Buckley and was on his way, 55/5.
In an all too familiar instance, the next wicket to fall was J. Perman (5), once again subject to questionable calling and was just out of his ground, 60/6. Cooper, who some say was “partly” at fault for the run out, soon found his punishhment as Waqer then had him running doubles for the next 10 overs with both batsmen finally getting some form on the day for the team.
However, with both in good mettle, the drinks break came and as it so often does, disrupted the flow and Cooper (20) finally offered Panchal a wicket in his last over, 99/7 off 32. G. Ward was next in, not relishing the running he had seen Waqer displaying over the last 10 overs but got straight into the mix with a 4 first ball and then one of the dreaded doubles!
Between them they added another 19 to the score before the returning Banks again bowled, not one but two Alfas men in the same over, Ward (13) and Dell (0) falling within 5 balls of each other. Last man and skipper Perman then went in and matched Waqer step for step if not run for run and both Waqer (41*) and Perman (11*) were able to get to the end of the alloted 40 overs. Alfas posting 147 which was going to be a hard target to defend.
After tea, Pinatar opened with Safdar and Panchal and both batsmen went after the Alfas opening bowling with relish. An opening partnership of 71 and Pinatar were already nearly half way to their target before Safdar (27) tried to bounce one off a passing plane but Abdul was able to hold his nerve and take the catch as it came out of orbit.
B. Singh was the next man in and hit the first 6 of the day before some comical running had him stranded on 10, Waqer throwing down the stumps. Banks joined Panchal at the crease and Panchal shortly after moved through to his 50 and shortly after that moved back to the hut as J. Perman got one to turn in and castle the opener, Panchal departing for a well struck 52 and Pinatar were 105/3 off 21.
Olyphant (4) did not get to make much of an impression before opening bowler K. Perman sent him back to the hut, clean bowled. Alfas nearly had another as Banks tried to replicate Safdar’s lunar shot but as the ball came down swirling in the wind, the catch was just put down, and in the end, Buckley was left with the easy task of hitting the winning runs and securing 24 points for Pinatar.
Article courtesy of Sporting Alfas Cricket Club