4th XI Vs Oakfield Parkonians 3rd

After last week’s dramatic victory it was a crash back down to earth for the Brentwood 4th XI as they took a bit of thrashing at the hands of the Old Parkonians 3rd XI. Given the weather conditions throughout the week leading up to the game, it was an important toss to win. The big moment came, the coin went up, Ranns called heads but tails never fails. Brentwood inserted on a wicket that resembled a snooker table in colour with a relatively inexperienced batting line up. Something that was a bit of a theme across the club as all 4 teams lost the toss and were all asked to bat.

Opening up was debutant David Cross and youngster Louis Morris. The pace of OP’s opening bowler Sahil Honda was unlike anything faced by the 4’s this year and even on the soft deck, he managed to get the ball up into the ribs when he dug it in short. Cross managed to survive some well-directed bouncers but after being pushed back in the first five balls of the over Handa pitched one up that beat Cross and bowled him. At the other end Jonny Balakumar was bowling with a little less pace but with a lot more swing and after a couple of near misses on shots falling just short of mid-on, Balakumar did for Morris with a swinging delivery that bowled him. Manuel Torrado then joined wicket keeper Ryan Pocock at the crease and after surviving a few balls Honda aimed another short ball into Torrado who was hit on the glove with the ball popping to the man in close at square leg. Matt Bulmer came in at number 5 and he and Pocock saw off a couple of overs with a few runs being scored via Pocock and extras. Honda continued his stellar form and forced an edge from Bulmer that went straight through 2nd slips hands. Unfortunately for Bulmer, it then ricocheted off of slips boot and floated to OP’s skipper Alan Bouquet who took a simple rebound catch with the gloves. Next ball, Christian Howe received a jaffer from Honda that hit the top of off stump and removed him for a golden duck. 5 ducks in the top 6 batsmen and Brentwood with only 12 runs on the board, certainly not good reading. Honda with 4 of the wickets then took a breather and with Pocock and Amy Harvey now at the crease, the pair looked to try and save some face for Brentwood. Pocock hit first change bowler Matt Holland for 3 boundaries within a couple of overs including a big six over deep mid-off whilst at the other end Harvey executed an audacious sweep for a couple off of Balakumar. Shortly after though Balakumar bowled Harvey for 5. Young Aiden Pritchard joined Pocock with a bat that was certainly older than him and probably most other people on the team. He then missed a Holland slow full toss and was bowled for 1. Last week’s hero Jake Walker came in at 9 and rode his luck a little with OP’s dropping him twice. Pocock didn’t have the same luck and after a long vigil that was chanceless, he tried to counter attack Taranpreet Bhatia (who after an ordinary first couple of overs, had started to hoop it around in the seamer friendly conditions) and skied one to extra cover where Usman Rafiq took a great tumbling catch over his head. Walker was then eventually bowled by the spinner Mazham Ali for 7, and after Ranns had smoked a full toss back over Ali’s head for 4 after having joined Rob Pritchard in the middle for the final wicket, he was bowled by the returning Honda who picked up his 5th wicket and ended with impressive figures of 5-5. A disappointing total of 77 all out in 25.4 overs that would have been a lot worse if weren’t for the efforts of Pocock (25) and a few loose deliveries to add to the extras column.

Given the short amount of overs bowled, it was decided to turn straight around for the OP’s chase and opening batsman Haaris Shah and Faisal Chaudhry looked to make quick work of the small total. In his 2nd over, Ranns forced a loose shot from Shah that was unfortunately dropped by Morris at square leg. However as the batsman contemplated a 2nd run, Morris threw in the ball and with a mix up between the batsman, Pocock had plenty of time to retrieve the ball from a few yards out and run out Chaudhry who’d been sent back by Shah. Following this, there was only one other chance offered by OP’s, again off of Ranns, where Bulmer dropped Shah at short extra cover. Perhaps deceived by the wall not quite coming off the middle as most of Shah’s other shots had been well timed strikes. Shah took on the lead role for OP’s and reached his 50 with relative ease ending on 59 not out after hitting the winning boundary off of Morris and Old Parkonian’s wrapping up the chase in just 11 overs for a very comfortable 9 wicket victory.

Losing the toss, with not the strongest side, against a very strong bowling attack, on a very bowler friendly wicket, unfortunately there was only likely to be one outcome. Brentwood will be a little disappointed that they didn’t reach 3 figures to maybe give them more of a chance of picking up bowling points themselves but you had to hand it to the Old Parkonians’ bowlers who performed exceptionally and used the conditions to their advantage. Another test for Brentwood next week as they return to the OCG take on the 1st half season pace setters, the Upminster 5th XI.