Mansfield League Sunday Section IV - 20th April 2003

Clay Cross 106-8
Nomads 156-6

Clay Cross (4 points) drew with Nomads (15 points)

Having won the toss and electing to put the opposition in to bat on one of the greener wickets seen in recent times Clay Cross put in good early effort to stifle Nomads attempts to keep the scoreboard ticking with quick singles, Karl Kohnson being particularly keen to swallow up the ball in close. Ian Miller (1-27) surprised all and didn't bowl short and crap and Stevie G (0-38)wobbled his mammaries in a sublime display, surely only to be bettered by Matt Garner. Wickets were fairly hard to come by and the Cross will still be ruing many dropped catches especially in the innings of R Ball who ended up with 65 from 52 lives. James Collett (3-34)brilliantly worked around the dead pitch by utilising full tosses to capture each victim in his 3 wicket haul. James Carroll (0-14) overcame a slightly loose first over to bowl tidily whilst Paul Evans (1-31)did the dirty work with Miller in the last six overs to leave Nomads finishing on 158 for 6 from the allotted 40 overs.

The batting began in a less than enthralling manner as Nomads bowled extremely negatively in an attempt to counter the short boundary. Will Eyre showed promising technique and resilience in his knock before Johnson and particularly Miller looked to push the score into bounds of respectability. Miller producing (and I really do hate to say this) a fine display of how to dispatch the ball to all parts of the ground before he was eventually dismissed for a rapid 58. The remaining batsmen hung in to ensure the losing draw was achieved with a score of 106 for 8 from the 40 overs.