Match Report Sunday Friendly 24/04/22

Lovely day at the Gate. Playing on the pitch furthest away from the pavilion which turned out to have a bit of variable bounce but played ok on the whole. I won toss and decided to have a bat. Opened with Danny B and Sean Nesbitt against decent seam attack. Danny in imperious form and Sean a bit more watchful but they put on about 70 for the 1st wicket until Sean was LBW to their 1st change seamer. Fred and Paras departed swiftly before Atyeo joined Danny to keep him company until DB retired out on exactly 100. Lovely knock. Ateyo played some muscular shots and he and I put on a few together in the final overs with Atyeo departing late on for an excellent 45. A total of 220 felt defendable.

Opened bowling with debutant seamer Tej who would have preferred first change but as only seamer in the side was given no choice. He was lively and bowled some nice away swing later on as the ball got a bit older. Deserved more than his 2 wickets and we'll definitely be seeing more of him. Rehan opened at other end, bowling well and got an early wicket smartly caught from a nick by me behind the stumps.

Carew and Atyeo took over and both bowled well in patches but lacked a bit of consistency of line and length.

After drinks the wheels fell off slightly. New signing Jon Brown had a go but struggled with his line which isn't surprising given his lack of practice and the fact that he's only just coming back to the game after a long break. Fred got carted as did Danny by their 2 set batters and they reached the target of 220 with nearly 8 overs to spare.

A good warm up nonetheless and a sound basis on which to build.

ZP