WINNING WEEKEND FOR THE 2's - T20 BURNOPFIELD (h) & NEPL Div 2 v GATESHEAD FELL (a)

31st Jul 2023

NEPL 2nd X1 T20 Group H: Friday 28^th July 2023: SNCC v Burnopfield (h)

Burnopfield 77-6 (20o) George Weston 17, Oscar Brown 19, Robert Kempson 12: Allan Davidson 0-11, Gavin Paton 1-8, Ben Hobbs 1-12, George Gray 0-11, James Lunn 1-19, Sadiq Khan 3-11.

SNCC 78-0 (8.1o) Ru Fletcher 40*, Alex Charnley 30*: Archie Cuthbertson 0-27, Vishal Manoharan 0-24, Archie Millican 0-12, Gokul Gnanaprakasam 0-10, Ranjith Radhakrishnan 0-5.

SNCC won by 10 wickets. 6 points

A comfortable win for the Bulls as, having been inserted, Burnopfield became stuck. Good opening spells from Allan & Gavin, the latter bowling Manoharan (5).

A wicket for Ben when Weston (17,27b,1x4) drove to mid off where Sadiq took the catch. Brown was becalmed, George bowled 3 overs for 11 & then Lunny & Sadiq contrived to tease out 4 more wickets before the ned of the 20 overs.

Kempson (12) was bowled by Sadiq, Brown (17, 46b) c & b by Lunny diving to his left to take a well struck drive & Sadiq bamboozling Walters (4) & the number 5 (8) bowling both.

SN won the game in 8.1 overs as Ru 40* (25b, 7x4) & Alex C 30* (24b. 3x4) showed positive intent, Ru sweeping behind square & cover driving & Alex punching through the leg side in trademark style.

The game on Thursday 27^th July v Washington (a) in the same competition was abandoned with 2 points each.

               NEPL Division 2 Sat 29^th July 2023 SNCC v Gateshead Fell (a)

Gateshead Fell 104 ao (41.5o) Malik Javed 44, Ollie Elliott 12, Chris Elliott 9: Allan Davidson 1-18, Gavin Paton 4-17, George Gray 0-20, Ben Hobbs 2-25, Sadiq Khan 3-17.

SNCC 108-4 (25.3o) Nick Tomlinson 26, Alex Charnley 33, Angus Southern 22*, Alex Weetman 14*: Chris Elliott 0-15, Tom Lugsden 0-30, Sam Goodliffe 1-16, Luke Angus 0-13, Matthew Carrick 3-27, Ollie Elliott 0-0.

SNCC won by 6 wickets 22 points, Gateshead Fell 1.

A windy day, a slow outfield & no cricket for 3 weeks persuaded the Bulls to ask the home team to bat. The best opening spell of the season from Allan & Gavin with 5 consecutive maidens put the Fell on the back foot. Bowling up hill, into the wind was not easy so all credit to Allan for his overall contribution (10-6-18-1) & to Gavin, who has seldom bowled better this year, taking 4-17 from 9.4 overs with 4 maidens.

In the 4^th over Goodliffe (2) was caught in the gully by Alex C, diving forward to take a lobbed chance. 18-2 in the 11^th as J Devenport (6) gloved down the legside off Gavin, w/k Alex W taking the catch.

A positive partnership between Malik & Smith ensued until but at 32 the experienced, left handed Smith (8) mis hooked Gavin to sky & offer a c & b chance. Tough to bowl into the wind for both seam & spin, George's 5 overs went for 20. In over 28,  Malik (44, 51b 7x4), not fully forward, was bowled by Ben as the ball seemed to keep low & move in, 75-4.

One run later Ollie Elliott (12) missed a full straight one to be bowled by Ben. in the 80's 3 wickets fell; at 83 Muthe (4) skied to cover off Allan to be caught by Lunny. One run later Lunny caught Carrick (0) off Sadiq & at 85 Franklin (2) was caught by Allan off Sadiq, 84-7.

Chris Elliott struck 2x4 but found Angus Southern at long off who took the catch to make it 96-9, Sadiq's 3^rd wicket. Gavin returned to pin the lh Luke Angus (2) lbw & the innings closed at 104 after 41.5 overs.

13 maidens in the innings 6 to Allan, 4 to Gavin, 1 to Ben & 2 to Sadiq, control on a very windy day, admirable.

Nick T & Alex C faced the seam of C Elliott & Lugsden. Steady progress at 4/over until two wickets went down in the 16^th over. Alex (33, 46b, 2x4) was caught at first slip of the sla of Carrick. One run & 3 balls later Nick (26, 49b,2x4) drove Carrick to mid off, 65-2.

Nathan (4) drove Carrick straight for 4 but in attempting a repeat next ball, mistimed & only found Smith at short extra cover,  one run later a bit of bounce undid Lunny's (0) back foot force & he edged to w/k Devenport, 72-4.

Captain  Alex W joined Angus Southern & the pair sensibly ushered the Bulls home taking advantage of one Carrick over, when short deliveries went for 12.

The winning runs came in the 26^th over, Angus (22* 33b 2x4) & Alex W (14*,18b, 2x4), a 6 wicket win which lifts the Bulls to 5^th place in Division 2 on 184 points, overtaking Gateshead Fell (174) who drop to 6th.

Onward to Sat 5^th August SNCC v Whitburn (h), the last of the 105 over win/lose/draw games, we hope you can be there to cheer the Bulls on.

Duncan.