TORREVIEJA V LA MANGA (LEAGUE)

And so the day had arrived. The ECCL 2 began today with Torrevieja hosting La Manga. The wicket was set and the weather was partly cloudy to begin with. Both teams were warmed up and ready to begin. 
To everyones surprise K.Wood WON the toss (to good to be true but its real) and selected to bowl first.

With regular R.singh unavailable there was a new opening partnership of S.Khan and deputee N.Bapat. opener C.Hunt of La manga had no intentions of hanging about as he took the battle to the bowlers smashing some early boundaries. 20 were scored of the first 3 overs. It was only a matter of time though as he ended up playing on to his stumps by S.khan.

D.Williams came in and watched M.Harbour get clean bowled by S.khan. S.Khan struck again in his 5th over when a full toss against D.Williams flew straight to P.Harvey at mid-wicket for a nice catch. T.Vine enter for his first innings at Torrevieja but couldnt muster a score before C.Wood cleaned bowled him with a nice slower ball. Drinks break came with very even stats for both teams 64/4 of 15 overs. 

Both teams returned for the 2nd session with I.Hunt and D.Warwick batting for la Manga and the bowling attack being lead by P.Singh and A.Khan. Considering the team had just had a drinks break, tiredness kicked in whilst the batsmen took many singles and pushing the score past the 100 mark. A great 43 partnership from the senior duo came to an end when P.Singh’s last over rewarded him with an LBW against I.Hunt. 2nd drinks were taken and a plan was needed. La Manga looking for the 150 mark and Torre needing 3 wickets.

Runs came easily as wides came regulary and the La Manga batsmen taking lots of singles. Trying to take the tail-ender wickets prooved to be difficult. C.Wood came on in the death and claimed his 2nd wicket bowling D.Warwick out. 37th over and La Manga had pushed to 141/8. Both teams in the fight for their batting and bowling points. More wides and singles were taken and by the final over. Everyone had bowled their alloted overs so R.Maini came to bowl the last over. Defending 1 run to stop la mangas 3rd batting point and 2 wickets to claim Torre’s 5 bowling points. 
– 1 – 1 – . – . – . – W –

La Manga reached their target of 151 which earned them a valuable 3 batting points in the league. Torrevieja taking 9 wickets earned them 4 bowling points. 

A very respective score on Torreviejas pitch. The torre batsmen would have to work hard to continue the winning streak though. 

New openers P.Michael and K.Wood looked to continue their good run off form. 
A solid start from the boys as P.Michael took the attack hitting a 4 every over whilst K.Wood took a beating but survived the bowling attack.

It took 8 overs for K.Wood to finally score a run, meanwhile P.Michael had already smashed 39 to his name. K.Wood started picking up the pace as he watched P.Michael get cleaned bowled by junior Pro C.Rumi. The next over saw K.Wood dismissed smashing a ball high in the air a caught at cow corner for 18. Batsmen 3&4 of P.Harvey and R.Maini were set to score 85 of 30 overs from the openers 60 run partnership. R.Maini survived a couple overs but couldnt contribute to the score before being bowled out. T.Knowles entered at 5 and which started a very important partnership of very good defending and smashing the bad balls. The score reached the 100 mark in the 20th over. Looking good, it was a typical T.Knowes shot that ended his innings after a well fought 10 and a partnership of 45 with P.Harvey.

P.Singh went in at 6 and needing 36 to win from 16 overs. 
Some sensible batting saw P.Singh and P.Harvey rotate the strike and out the blue P.Singh turned on the accelerater and begun hitting the boundaries. 6’s and 4’s around the park, the score sped towards the target as P.Singh smashed a 6 to finish the game. 

Torrevieja WIN by 6 wickets and earn all 5 batting points from the performance. A total of 19 points out of 20 and a great start to the ECCL 2 campain. 

Torrevieja have their next fixture Next Sunday (13th May) vs Alfas II.

Torrevieja Cricket Club