11-06-2011 - Home - TVL - Finch vs Basingstoke

Finch vs Basingstoke

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Finch 2’s welcomed Basingstoke to the Memorial Park in a match that threatened to change the shape of the lower end of Division 2A.

Captain Mark Shepherd won the toss and in a positive move, elected to bat first. Shep and Dan Adkins opened the batting against a Basingstoke attack who found some early movement, albeit at no great pace. The game was still in its infancy when Shep found himself at both ends of the luck scale; having been dropped at cover he was given out LBW soon after, following a half hearted, one man appeal.

Shep’s misfortune bought Dan Marles to the crease. Finchampstead’s in form all rounder looked solid early on, building a steady partnership with Adkins, who himself looked far more at home against seam bowling than the spin he had faced in previous weeks. It was another fortunate dismissal to remove Adkins, the Finch opener playing on for a solid 23.

Archy Rajapakse was the new man in, playing a supportive role to the now settled Marles. Archy’s dismissal saw Cheetham come in and continue to play a supportive innings. This tactic was working well for the Finches, who throughout the middle overs scored at a healthy rate. Marles survived a couple of scares to score his second hundred of the season, and Cheetham and Osler scored 40 and 35 respectively to allow their captain to declare on 50 overs, having scored 246.

A superb tea was enjoyed before the Finches followed the lead of many of their Div 2A counterparts, opening with the old ball and two spinners. Cheetham and Rajapakse found some slow turn and although Cheetham rapped the Basingstoke pads with regularity, they couldn’t make the flurry of breakthroughs that had been hoped for.

The new ball was taken on a wicket that by now had seen a brief spell of rain, although this failed to provide any extra help for the bowlers. Marles, Bell and West worked hard for little reward against a Basingstoke line up that despite having 7 wickets in hand, never seemed interested with keeping up with the 6-an-over target they were left with come the 30th over.

Efforts were made to soften the batsmen up, and although this provided the occasional breakthrough, Basingstoke ended on 199-6, seemingly unperturbed even by their failure to hit the 200 mark, missing out on an extra bonus point in the process.

In summary, a solid Finch performance was encouraging, although couldn’t deliver the win that the team coveted so much. Next weekend's fixture provides another opportunity to claim a win against Chalfont St Peter, who also find themselves at the lower end of the division.

AWARDS
Leading run-scorer sunhat (Sponsored by Yorkshire CCC) – Dan Marles (Retained)
Man of the match shield – Dan Marles (last week –J Gaffney)
Last to arrive (Sponsored by British Rail) – Archy Rajapakse - ETA 12:17 (Last week – J Gaffney, ETA 13:04)

 

Statistics

Finchampstead won the toss and elected to bat
Result	Draw
Umpires	R Wheeler / R Seymour
Scorers	Avril Acres
Score
Finchampstead CC Scored 246 for 7 in 50
Basingstoke Scored 199 for 6 in 50

Player Performance - Batsmen

Player	How out	Runs	Catch	Stump
Mark Shepherd	LBW	8	1	0
Gareth Fry	Not Out	7	1	0
Dan Marles	Caught	107	1	0
Archy Rajapakse	Caught	4	0	0
Sam Cheetham	LBW	40	0	0
Charlie Alexander	Caught	2	0	0
Scott Osler	Bowled	35	0	0
Dan Adkins	Bowled	23	0	0
Ben Fisher	Not Out	2	0	0

Player Performance - Bowlers

Player	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Gareth Fry	3	0	20	0
Dan Marles	11	3	24	0
Archy Rajapakse	2	0	12	0
Sam Cheetham	14	3	59	2
Scott Osler	2	0	10	0
Matt Bell	7	1	26	2
Steve West	11	1	38	2