 |
| Match-winner Tom Cosford. Picture: www.sportsshots.org.uk |
Having won the toss, Horspath skipper Will Eason elected to bat first on a pitch which looked as if it would favour spin in the second innings. The visitors, sporting their new blue coloured kit in a league game for the first time, had reached 24-0 in the tenth over when a hailstorm sent the players rushing for cover and the game was reduced to 47 overs-a-side.
One run had been added after the resumption when Tom Coleman was caught at first slip by Charlie Macdonell off veteran seamer Simon Stanway for 20. Robbie Eason was joined by Jimmy Phillips and they took the score to 41 when the latter was caught behind by Stephen Dutch as he attempted to guide a delivery from Tom Weymes down to third man.
Darryl Brown then sent a leading edge to AJ Woodland at point off Stanway to make it 50-3. Robbie Eason was trapped lbw by Andy Harris for 13 as Horspath slid to 60-4, and one run later Jay Parmar suffered the same fate. Cosford, fresh from impressing for Oxfordshire in their Twenty20 games, and Kyle Hopper moved the score on to 89 when the latter fell to a smart catch at short cover by Shelvin Gumbs off Steven Clark.
But Cosford then took the attack to the hosts with some powerful straight hitting, and with Will Eason put on a crucial 67 runs for the seventh wicket, before the Horspath skipper was caught behind for 19 off Gumbs. The match was then held up for around 20 minutes while Tring wicket-keeper Stephen Dutch was attended to before being taken to hospital with a suspected ruptured Achilles tendon.
Cosford had made 62 from 56 balls with four fours and three sixes when he was caught at long on by Clark off Harris to make it 180-8. Two runs later, Asad Rafiq was caught behind by Gumbs without scoring off Clark, and Horspath were 191 all out in the final over when Lloyd Belcher was stumped by the replacement wicket-keeper as Harris finished with 4-41. Mark Skelton was unbeaten with a useful 17, while Stanway returned figures of 2-19 and Clark 2-24.
Under the DLS method, Tring faced a revised target of 194 to win. Macdonell and Clark had put on 32 for the first wicket when Cosford make the breakthrough by trapping the latter lbw as he attempted a reverse sweep. AJ Woodland and Macdonell maintained the momentum, before the Tring opener edged a delivery from Skelton into his stumps for 28 to make it 69-2.
Nine runs later, Skelton struck again when Michael Payne was caught behind by Robbie Eason without scoring. Rafiq was bowling with good pace and he gained his reward with a short delivery which seemed to catch Gumbs by surprise as he presented Brown with a catch at mid-off to make it 83-4.
However, Woodland brought up his half-century in the 29th over, and with Solly Woodall providing good support took Tring to 135-4 when Brown made a vital intervention with two wickets in the space of three balls. Horspath's overseas star had Woodland caught at deep square leg by Hopper for 61 off 78 deliveries, which included five fours and a six, before Woodall fell lbw.
Sanjoy Bassi and Harris took the score to 153 when Will Eason, having returned to the attack, took two wickets in two balls by having the latter caught behind before he bowled Weymes. Seven more runs had been added when Bassi came down the pitch to Will Eason, whose legside delivery was cleanly taken by his brother, Robbie, to complete the stumping. With the injured Dutch unable to bat, Tring were 160 all out.
Eason finished with 3-31, while Skelton picked up 2-16, Brown 2-14, Cosford 1-18 and Rafiq 1-22, while Belcher's ten overs came at a cost of just 26 and included five maidens.
Posted by: Russ