Posted by Tony Hutton
Yesterday saw yet another exciting finish in the one day game between Leeds/Bradford University and Loughborough University at Weetwood, Leeds. Given that the forecast was for cold weather with blustery showers it was surprising that so little time was lost throughout a day which started in warm sunshine and remained fine until mid-afternoon when a brief rain shower knocked two overs from each sides innings.
Loughborough batted first and although they never quite looked on target to reach the magic 300 score which has almost become the norm in this competition, they did reach an imposing 262-1 in 48 overs. In the final stages of the innings dominated by a two hundred partnership both batsman just managed to reach the century mark. First to get there was Zimbabwean Dan Butchart who has played for Leicester seconds, closely followed by Ben Chapman-Lilley, who has played for Warwickshire seconds.
The home side were without their regular opening bowler Josh Fallows, a Lancastrian, who we learned later was having a trial playing for Kent seconds. Not sure he would have fared any better than the varied attack on show on yet another of Richard Robinson's excellent batting wickets. The revised target for the home side was 269 from 48 overs and they made a poor start by losing in form opener Jack Timby early on.
It soon became apparent that Leeds/Bradford's hopes rested on the shoulders of Josh de Carries, a young man who has had much publicity recently and is following in the footsteps of many other Middlesex players who have developed at Weetwood over the years. The most notable of these being Toby Roland-Jones, Nick Gubbins and Martin Andersson. De Carries had good support from Haynes with 36 and Tom Keast with 45, but managed to stay there until the very end making 112 not out, to become the third centurion of the day when the game was won by five wickets with just one ball remaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment