Cricket: Seconds victorious in low scoring clash
Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship
Division Three
Sudbury II 174 Worlington 144
A WORKMANLIKE team performance helped Sudbury beat Worlington in a low scoring encounter. A good crowd at Friars Street were entertained to a close, tense game, where bowlers, not batsmen, engineered the outcome.
Batting first, Sudbury stuttered as both Brooks and Poole fell early and Shropshire retired hurt. Barnett (10) and Cooke (24) rebuilt with elegance, but when these two fell Sudbury still only had 50 on the board.
However youngster Kenny Moulton-Day (27) and Macdiarmid (26) played sensibly and patiently to help build a score. Robins struck a couple of lusty blows and the tiger-balmed Shropshire gingerly returned to hit a couple of boundaries, but crucially skipper O'Brien (20) stayed at the crease and played out a true captain's innings to guide his team, first to 150, then beyond with the help of Backler.
Like so many teams in the league Worlington have strength in depth with their batting, but no one could have predicted the first ball of the innings as Bacon turned it round to backward square leg and blindly called for a second run; Backler's accurate throw and O'Brien's safe hands saw him run out by some distance.
One for one off one ball; he was obviously content with the batting ability below him. However Simmons, who can be a thorn in a bowler's side, played on to his own wicket off a seaming delivery from Thomas two overs later, and from this moment on wickets fell at regular intervals.
A shrewd change saw Macdiarmid replace Robins and his first ball trapped Thompson in front. Macdiarmid continued to cause the batsmen trouble with his hooping inswingers, picking up three middle-order wickets.
Thomas persevered, as so often the case, and claimed the crucial wicket of Roberts, who looked dangerous in a disciplined spell of 15 overs on the bounce. Robins then replaced Macdiarmid, bowling with such accuracy it had a strangling effect on the run rate.
He picked up two wickets while Backler finished off the innings, fast becoming his speciality, as Worlington fell 30 runs short.
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Weather for Sudbury
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
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Sunny spells
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