Willoughby VS Stony Stratford

Willoughby welcomed Stony Stratford to the Green in the over cast conditions. Skipper Ben Hollis won the toss and elected to bowl on the fresh wicket. Callum Hanks and Dan Farrow opened the attack and got off to a good start, Hanks picking up a wicket in the 5th over removing Stony's number two and Dan Farrow trapping Stony's inform captain LBW in the 12th 36-2. A fine piece of work in the field by Stuart Bonthuys removed another batsmen with a direct hit with only one stump to aim at, Hanks also manged to get another wicket to his name knocking back leg stump with perfect in swinging delivery 50-4. Stuart Bonthuys and Archie McMillian were brought into the attack while Oscar Watson and Simon Chapman looked to build their innings , they managed 105 partnership before Hollis made a brilliant diving catch in the slips to remove Watson for 76, 155-5. Dave Alcock was brought into the attack and got his name in the book early on with a fine bit of keeping by Ashley Rayner taking a catch down the leg side, 155-6. Deepak Ravikumar was Stony's number eight and only had one thing in his mind hit the ball hard and a long way. He scored 96 runs in 9 overs and took apart our bowling attack which Stony desperately needed. Bonthuys managed to get another wicket to his name finishing on 63-2. Hanks 65-5 off 10, Farrow 31-1 off 10,McMillian 49-0 off 8,Hollis16-0 off 2,Alcock 47-1 off 5.

Stony racked up 273-7 off 45 overs.

The tea break was quite and everyone's head was down a little after fetching the ball over the road a few times and from the farmers field. Hollis had a small chat with his batsmen and encouraged them we can do this, all we needed was a good start and a good solid foundation.

Hassan Nawaz and Callum Hanks opened the batting and began the chase, Nawaz took it to Stony's bowlers early on finding the boundary with ease scoring quickly and started to get the run rate down early on. Hanks (9) was caught and bowled by Tom Winton which brought Chait Kurusala to the crease 57-1 off 9. Nawaz made his half century with a huge six over the bowlers head and continued scoring runs and being positive. Nawaz and Kurusala put together a 93 run partnership before Nawaz was caught for a superb ( 77 ) 150-2. Rayner and Hollis both added to the score but were out cheapy and Alcock was out for a very questionable LBW shout after clearly hitting the ball with his bat for a duck. Kurusala was taking apart Stony's bowling and forced bowling changes regularly, Kurusala was out for ( 97 ) which included nine fours and five sixes 198-5 off 29 overs. Stony knew they was in a game and the match was set for a exciting finish. Stuart Bonthuys and Scott Cluley were in and tickled the ball around picking up easy singles knowing singles could win the match. Bonthuys kept his cool and waited for the bad delivery and nailed it on several occasions for four. Cluley 24* looked more aggressive and wanted to put Willoughby in the driving seat even more, hitting two sixes and two fours to make the scores level. Bonthuys 35* hit the winning runs and got the job done in the 43rd over.

After Stony Stratford set 273 they thought they had done enough to win the game, this game truly shows its a game of two halves and never give up. What a team performance with the bat and all it takes is one or two people to come off and anything is possible. A outstanding game of cricket by Willoughby and probably one of the highest chases ever on a Saturday to win the game at Willoughby.

That's seven wins out of seven and with results going our way yesterday this really helps us while be hunt down a promotion spot. Next week we travel to Irthlingborough Town CC and look for revenge after a loss at the start of the season.