16-07-2008 - Away - BYCL - Slough vs Finch

Squad u17 are going to the other Show

Berkshire u17 Semi Final.
Under foreboding thunderous skies it was a clash of the titans, two giants of the Berkshire league, a collision of unbending will with no quarter asked or given, a game that had been eagerly anticipated all season then Finch lost the toss and were invited to field. The first four overs by Madgwick and Smith were models of good line, length and pace restricting the Slough openers Gumbs and Taj to 15 scored. But then Slough got after the bowling and accelerated to 36 off 6. Morris and Huggan were brought on and calmed things down with some accurate bowling but Slough had moved on to 66 after 10 overs with no loss. Then Morris trapped Gumbs 43 lbw. Slough fought back with some boundaries off Huggan, however, Morris, using all his experience, lulled Payne into skiing his shot and he was out for a duck.  Morris’s next ball and Taj 36 was caught by Bellis with a wonderful feat of athletic prowess in the covers. It was then left to Koshal and Walton to take out Sharath 3 and Din 12. Koshal bowled superbly to collect another 2 wickets after a run out by Huggan.  Only 9 runs were scored off Koshal's 3 overs.  With James Osler stopping everything in the covers and Bellis and Walton patrolling the boundaries.  This was all too exciting for words. Another good decision by skipper Morris to bring Huggan back for the last over which produced a wicket and Slough scrambled to 127 for 9.  Short of what they wanted but still a good par score. This was Game On. 
Sneakily Slough decide to use the old ball, opening with their new talented county spinner but the new untried opening partnership of Alexander and House started well and at 6 overs were well ahead of Slough’s score with 49 on the board. House fell in the 8th over.  Madgwick joined and the runs continued to flow; Finch 70 after 10, then 99 after 15.  Complements were received about Finch’s batters.  Slough went defensive and it was down to a run a ball, a difficult thing to do against even more county bowlers. Madgwick trapped lbw and Bellis went quickly. Morris joined Alexander at the crease and Finch reached 117 off 18. Slough was fielding very well but these two were in control. Finch needed 3 off the last over, a couple of dots then a coulple singles and Finch needed one with 2 balls to go, so it was fitting that Alexander hit a classic drive for 4 to finish 75 not out to walk off arm in arm with his skipper both supporting broad grins of delight.  This was one tough game and both teams played hard in a good sporting manner that one can expect from these two big clubs but against Slough’s 5 county players this was Finch’s Battle of Gaugamela.
 

Statistics

Finchampstead won the toss and elected to field
Result	Win
Umpires	Peter Morris
Scorers	Ian Huggan
Score
Finchampstead CC Scored 131 for 3 in 19.4
Slough Scored 127 for 9 in 20

Player Performance - Batsmen

Player	How out	Runs	Catch	Stump
Charlie Alexander	Not Out	75	0	1
Andrew House	Caught	16	0	0
Richard Madgwick	LBW	11	1	0
David Bellis	Bowled	1	1	0
Matt Morris	Not Out	9	1	0

Player Performance - Bowlers

Player	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Richard Madgwick	3	0	21	0
Matt Morris	4	1	18	3
Matt Huggan	4	0	32	1
Tony Smith	3	0	14	0
Anish Koshal	3	0	9	3
Alexander Walton	3	0	23	1