4th XI Vs Wanstead & Snaresbrook 6th

Saturday saw the 4th XI travel to Forest Road for the third time this season to face Wanstead & Snaresbrook 6th XI. I could talk about the toss but you all know the result. Brentwood ended up batting first.

Opening the batting for Brentwood were James Berry and the in form Tom Harries. They started patiently, they had to with Wanstead opener Jacob Radford coming in off an unnecessary, 18 step run-up…..it set the tone for what was to be a slow innings. When the balls were finally delivered, Harries and Berry were brisk between the wickets turning twos into threes and occasionally managing to force the ball through the long, thick outfield grass to the boundary.

Berry was the faster of the two to get going moving his score onto 42 before departing with a loose shot off of Salba Rahman to point. This brought keeper Ryan Pocock to the wicket however he headed back to hutch in the next over for a duck after dangling his bat at a wide one and inside edging onto the stumps.

It became three wickets in as many overs for Wanstead when Luke Brailey left a straight one from Rahman to leave Brentwood 89-3 having been 73-0. Young Arun Gautham picked a good time to notch up his highest score of the season in a rebuilding effort with Harries. The pair pushed the scoring rate on with Harries going past 50 for the second week running with the partnership reaching 87 off just 12 overs before Harries eventually holed out off of spinner Syed Hussain for 72.

Shot maker Luke Wells then came to the crease with Brentwood 24 shy of maximum batting points with plenty of overs in the tank. He and Gautham brought up the 200 in the 32nd over before returning opener Radford slowed the scoring rate for a couple of overs. Perhaps this brought the poor stroke from Gautham as he missed and Hussain hit bowling him for 37 at the opposite end.

With Brentwood pushing for an early declaration, Ewan Smith and David Berry selflessly attempted to push the scoring rate with the former getting one that kept very low from Radford to depart for 4 and Berry Snr top edging Hussain for nought.

Harry Hobson mirrored his previous batting cameos in hitting 8 not out and with the score passing 250, Wells was given one more over to get the 13 runs required for his 50. He fell seven short, bowled for 43 off of the last ball of the over by Hussain and with the total at 260-8, enough was enough for skipper Ranns as he declared 3 overs early…still 3 hours and 11 minutes mind…

With 261 required off a minimum 43 overs, and following Wanstead captain’s arrogant statement about “smelling points” earlier, Brentwood fully expected an early push from the hosts to chase the total. Unfortunately their batting was much like their attitude in the field, very pedestrian and the anchor was dropped from about over 3.

Early on, opener Zakariya Harris smashed one behind to keeper Pocock but Wanstead captain Chris Ley was the only one in the postcode not to hear or see it and his decision was not out. In Wells’ next over it looked as though the DRS app can’t come quick enough as what looked a certain LBW shout against Harris was turned down. Going down leg was the call from the umpire almost before the ball had left the bowler’s hand….

Wells would eventually get the wicket his fantastic bowling had deserved as he bowled the other opener Abdul Gour for 15. There was then no doubting the edge for wicket number two as Luke Brailey’s leg spin out foxed Tariq Mohiuddin with Berry Snr taking a solid catch at slip. Brailey when then turn into supporting star as he took a splendid sharp catch in the covers off of Wells to remove Rathakrishnan.

Three down, anchor well and truly into the ground, the frustration showed amongst the visitors as a long day was looking to prove an unfruitful one with another very close LBW shout against Harris being turned down, this time off of Hobson. They did pick up a fourth wicket off of spinner Gautham with Wells proving to be cool-one-hand-Luke as he took a stretching one handed catch above his head. Misjudged? Not at all!!

With time starting run out for Brentwood the field came in to try and induce some wild shots from Harris and new batsman Oliver Arnold but they took advantage to push the hosts towards a second batting point. I’d love to be able to write more about it but it was a pretty turgid period of cricket that was only livened up by the reintroduction of Wells with 3 overs left.

He immediately struck getting Arnold (39) to prod one back for a return catch before trapping Saeed Mukhtar LBW later in the over to leave the visitors with four wickets to get in just two overs. Although they came close with a couple sharp half chances it was to be a disappointing draw in a similar vein to that of the two against Ilford.

Perhaps too many runs on the board, perhaps too many early wickets with both strangling the opposition into a very negative pattern of play however these (perhaps) suggest a problem with the format as opposed to the performance of the team who on the whole have batted, bowled and fielded better than the opposition but not come away with the win.

Next week is the short trip to Shenfield with Brentwood hoping to make it a double over their neighbours this season following victory at the OCG.

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