30-05-2009 - Home - TVL - Finch vs British Airways

BA take off at The Leas

Finch were inserted on a glorious day at a Leas Ground looking at its best. Capn’ Bob, who would have batted first, felt all indicators pointed to a BA team lacking batting depth to chase a decent total. Opener Biggsy nearly made it a hat-trick of horizontal bat get-out shots when dropped at square leg in the first over, however he and opener Blogg proceeded sedately to 98 for the first wicket, before pushing too hard at a rising delivery and being comfortably pouched for 48. Bloggy, as ever, looked comfortable up to the point of being out - unexpectedly feathering to the keeper for 44. Paul Evans again impressed with some smooth strokeplay and Tom Pask biffed his way to 21. Alex Jones again bullied the bowlers, reaching 28 when the 52 over completed with Finch on an under-par 215.

After another legendary Rosey Ramskir tea, opening bowlers Masons and Osler (J) bowled with impressive speed, control and consistency. Unfortunately, they came up against 2 openers of a quality rarely seen at this level. Despite bowling well, the BA batsmen (clearly the shift patterns at Heathrow favoured them this week) hit clean shots all around the wicket. With James eventually getting the inside edge onto the stumps of Nazir for 24, his partner Orridge (cannot be the right spelling) blazed his way past 50. Mason eventually found the edge and the slip catch was taken (modesty forbids further description, however the bowler felt it was the best catch ever taken off his bowling and even the batsman was later complimentary – I just saw it as a routine slip catch....).

James Osler continued his fine spell and the early wicket and a later edge to slip (lot easier, that one) seemed inadequate reward for his efforts.

With BA’s middle-order batsmen taking the lead from the openers and continuing their run (and shot) a ball policy it was clear Finch needed quick wickets. Cap’n Bob inspirationally tossed the ball to Bloggy, whose wily twirling took two quick wickets to spark some alarm in the BA ranks. Unfortunately, this was too little too late as BA reached the target in a comfortable 38 overs.

Finch can take some positives from the game with another fine all-round fielding performance and some good individual batting and bowling contributions. However, greater batting urgency and the inclusion of a fifth bowler, preferably a paceman is urgently needed to increase competitiveness.

 

Statistics

British Airways won the toss and elected to field
Result	Lost
Score
Finchampstead CC Scored 215 for 5 in 52
British Airways Scored 216 for 5 in 38

Player Performance - Batsmen

Player	How out	Runs	Catch	Stump
Bob Osler	Not Out	3	0	0
Tom Pask	Bowled	21	0	0
Gareth Biggs	Caught	48	0	0
Malcom Blogg	Caught	44	0	0
Paul Evans	Bowled	21	0	0
Kevin Ramskir	Stumped	8	2	0
Alex Jones	Not Out	28	0	0

Player Performance - Bowlers

Player	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Bob Osler	7	0	33	0
James Osler	15	2	68	2
Malcom Blogg	4	0	22	2
David Mason	13	1	76	1