1864'S WHOLEHEARTED PERFORMANCE-

27th May 2025

                                 1864'S WHOLEHEARTED PERFORMANCE-

                            NEWCASTLE WIN WITH ONE BALL REMAINING.

    Sat 24^th May 2025: NTCL Div 5 Central: SNCC v Newcastle (a) 40/40.

SNCC 1864 125-8 (40o) Aadi Bethanabatla 13, Belinda Wewalage 13, Patrick Hatcher 52*, Olly Alexander 22, Zach Henderson 11: Muni Ajay Kiran 0-14, Adam Moore 4-13, Biswas Naidu Yadala 1-7, Alok Shivastava 1-24, Nagendra Aleri 0-32, Naveed Safi 0-28.

Newcastle 128-5 (39.5o) Dan Rogers 13, David Churchley 41*, Naveed Safi 33, Adam Moore 9: Zach Henderson 1-16, Tom Oliver 1-15, Patrick Hatcher 1-26, David Cragg 0-18, Olly Alexander 1-10, Leo Harper 0-17, Archit Upadhye 2-20.

Newcastle won by 5 wickets - 29 points SNCC, 1864- 5.

A tense encounter that was won by the home team with the penultimate ball of their innings. A unpredictable surface showing uneven bounce at Stamfordham but the application of Newcastle opener David Churchley showed what was needed on such a surface, carrying his bat for 41* having faced 132 balls, hitting only 2 boundaries but guiding Newcastle to hard fought 5 wicket win.

The 1864's were invited to bat. Jacob McCord & Aadi Bethanabatla faced the seam of Kiran & Moore. 6-2 after 4 as Moore had McCord (0) caught at point & Will Oliver (0) lbw defending. 15-3 after 8 overs as Leo Harper (1) drove Moore to cover. Aadi & Olly Alexander dug in & the score had reached 31 in the 13 when Aadi (16) was unlucky that the uncertain bounce caused him to lob back to the bowler to be caught & bowled by Naidu Yadala, 4 down.

Tough going for the 64's as Moore bowled 7 overs, 3-10 & Naidu Yadala 7 overs, 1-7. Belinda & Olly took the total to 51 in the 13^th when Belinda (13) driving, was caught by Koushik in the gully off Shivastava, 5 down. Patrick was positive & in company with Olly, who was playing maturely beyond his years, the total rose to 91 in the 33rd when Olly (22, 79b, 2x4) hit a good shot off the spinner towards mid off but his optimism was dashed as the bowler gathered the ball & threw down the bowler's stumps. An unfortunate way for an excellent innings to end.

The rate increased, Patrick hitting 6 then 4 off Aleri & Zach taking boundaries off Safi & the returning Moore. At 117 in the 39^th Zach (11, 21b 2x4) was bowled by Moore. In the last over Patrick hit 3x2 but from the last ball of the innings Tom Oliver (0) was run out, 125-8, leaving Patrick 52*, (62b, 5x4 1x6), a captain's knock.

In reply, Churchley & Rogers faced Zach Henderson & Tom Oliver No real alarms until Tom bowled Rogers (13) at 27 in the 8^th over. Thereafter Churchley & Safi were content to wait for the occasional bad ball as Patrick & David Cragg  bowled then Olly had 3 overs including a maiden for only 6.

Leo & Archit began spells from over 21. At 96 in the 31st over Patrick deceived Safi (31, 60b, 2x4) with a slower yorker & bowled him. Archit bowled his  9 over spell admirably & got his reward with two wickets with consecutive balls in his 7^th the 34th, as first Wrigglesworth (4) was caught by Leo at cover & next ball Aleri (1) was bowled,108-4.

But Churchley was still there &, with Moore, the pair got to the last over, entrusted to Olly Alexander, with 2 to win.  When  Moore (9) was caught by Aadi at mid off from the second ball hopes rose. Going for the yorker, Shivastava manged to steer the full pitch to square leg for the winning runs with one ball remaining.

A valiant effort by a young side whose fielding was exemplary in its intensity, no drops, no misfields & on another day perhaps success could have been achieved. The captain was very proud of their performance. Patience & shot selection on such a wicket & reducing the number of wides things to ponder & improve.

Onward to Sat 31st May SNCC 1864 v Belsay (h) 1300, 40/40, do come along to see our young team battle.

Duncan.