Alne 2nds v Burton Leonard 2nds

Burton Leonard's 2nd XI made it four wins out of seven with a comfortable six wicket win at the beautifully picturesque ground of Alne at the weekend. On the hottest Saturday so far this season, Burton Leonard found themselves in the field first. Excellent bowling from openers Johnny Duffy and young Sam Crompton backed up by some good fielding had the Alne openers on the back foot straight away and even though a breakthrough did not come, runs were hard to come by.

It was not until the introduction of Stuart Barker from the village end that a wicket fell. The Burton skipper, Russell (Joe) Brand had six regular bowlers to choose from and sensibly opted for a rotation plan on a hot day. The Alne batsmen did not seem intent on setting a big score and thanks to some excellent bowling and fielding had only limped to 100 after 35 overs. The last ten overs saw a further 64 runs added which would have been considerably less had a very debatable run out been given out by the Alne umpire. The pick of the Burton attack was fifteen year old Alex Ellerby again who finished with 3-13, however everyone bowled well and Sam Crompton's difficult sky high catch epitomised the vistitors' performance in the field.

After one of the most sumptuous cricket teas ever witnessed, it was Burton Leonard's turn to bat. Chairman Dallas had bamboozled skipper "Rus" with some obscure legal argument and was duly promoted to opening batsman. This proved an inspirational piece of captaincy with 60 runs added for the first wicket as Chris Sladen and Andrew Dallas made light work of the Alne attack before Dallas was caught and bowled. Russell (Joe) Brand was Burton's next man in, and was given a very warm reception by the Alne team and complimented about his stroke play throughout his innings after every shot. By now the target was getting smaller and the psychological barrier of 100 was broken in the 28th over for the loss of only two wickets.

All that was left for Burton to do now was to bat sensibly and victory would be assured. Joe Wilson was bowled for 23 and Stu Barker added eight but Chris Sladen, still batting at the other end went on to score a match winning 65. When he was clean bowled, it was left to Ben Drummond and Johnny Duffy to hit some lusty blows towards the end of the innings and Burton had won with 5.4 overs to spare and six men still in the hut.

After disappointing campaign last season, Burton have been bolstered and rejuvenated by the inclusion of some very promising juniors and will be looking to make it five wins out of eight at Thornton Watlass next Saturday.

Below are photos from the match and some video including a Boycottesque master class in batting from Chairman Dallas.

This entry was posted on Saturday May 30th, 2009 at 9:00 AM and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.

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