A much improved performance gave Stony Stratford sight of their first win of the season on Saturday at home to Rushden. However, they had to settle for a winning draw in the end in what ended up a very tight game against strong opposition.
Steve Bellew, won the toss for the home side and on a worn wicket and decided to give his batsman first use on a surface that would get harder to bat on as the day went on. They were indebted to a fine knock from Dion Ebrahim, who’s 80 was the bedrock upon which Stony posted a reasonably competitive 185 for 9 on a tricky surface.
Opener Garth Davson went lbw to left armer Jake Higginbottom who swung the ball back in regularly and bowled a fine opening spell of 15 overs for just 40 runs. Fellow opening batsman, Mihir Choksi, looked assured and hit some fine looking shots all around the wicket and looked set for a big score until he followed a wide ball from Aqab Ahmed and nicked it to slip for 34.
There wasn’t much more joy for any of the other Stony batsman other than Ebrahim, who cruised to 50 with a trademark flick of his legs and looked well and truly back to his imperious best. Chris Bolton (14), Jarrod Pretorius (17) and Simon Myatt (11) all got starts but couldn’t go on any further as Stony struggled to 152 for 6 from 48 overs. Ebrahim was by now running out of partners and began to take a few risks in his attempt to push the score on late in the innings. He reversed swept Mudasser Hussain a number of times but in the end found Tom Russell behind the corner to fall for 80. Last pair Chris Guy (5*) and Andy Humphries (5*) both made sure the home side batted out their overs and reached 185 for 9. Gareth Griffiths occasional off spin was rewarded with figures of 3 for 23 and it capped a good bowling performance from Rushden.
Against a powerful batting side, Stony needed to pull out their best bowling and fielding performance of the season and that’s exactly what they did particularly in the first 30 overs.
Habib Ullah started things off for Stony, bowling with good pace and movement and his extra pace surprised opener Tom Russell as he gloved a catch behind to Pretorius to depart for 10. The same bowler accounted for fellow opener Tom West for 10 and the wickets began to tumble. Stony’s fielding was exemplary early on and with the wicket getting slower, catches in front of the wicket rather than behind were always more likely. And so it was as Chris Guy benefitted from two athletic catches from skipper Bellew at short cover.
First, the confident Jasper Davies drove a full ball to Bellew’s right, only for the Stony skipper to fling himself full length to his right and take a one handed catch to spark big celebrations from vibrant Stony. Danger man Mohammed Hussain, was next to go, in almost identical fashion this time Bellew getting both hands to another diving effort as Rushden slumped to 53 for 4.
When Bellew replaced Ullah things got even better for Stony as he trapped Sam Fowler and Mudasser lbw for ducks to leave the visitors reeling on 58 f0r 6. But, if Stony thought they had the game wrapped up, they were wrong as Rushden skipper Griffiths and all rounder Higginbottom had other ideas. The pair put on a fine stand of 89 to take the score to 147 with ten overs still remaining.
At this point, the game had turned on it’s head and Stony looked as if they were going to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. However, when Bellew came back on and immediately had Higginbottom caught by Chris Bolton for an excellent 59, the game was in the balance again. Simon Myatt then produced an excellent spell of left arm spin, taking 2 for 30 from 11 overs.
Aqab is always dangerous down the order but perished to a simple catch by Choksi at cover off Myatt, who then had Tom Firm caught at mid off by Richard Scott for 5. At this point, Griffiths, still unbeaten decided to shut up shop with 16 needed from two overs and the last pair survived a couple of hairy moments to claim a share of the spoils in what was a great game of cricket.
