Cricket Match Report

Cricket Match Report

It was another close game for Audlem, as they travelled to Church Eaton, a 60 mile journey for some.

The day started when captain, Chris Shenton, won the toss and elected to field.

It wasn't long before AJ got the big opening wicket, getting the team off to a great start.

But Church Eaton fought back, with a 30 run partnership before Jake Topping bowled a half tracker to take Smith by surprise, excellently caught by Irfan Shaik.

From that point, Audlem continued to bowl well, including wickets from Simon Swift and Jake Topping, and a run out from Irfan Shaik to dismiss someone without facing a ball.

Audlem continued to bowl well, including Bertie Hardy taking a fantastic two wickets in two balls, before bowling a wide on the hat trick ball.

While the quicks were storming in from one end, an injured Dave Parkinson was keeping it very quiet from the other end, conceding no runs.

This led to Rahul coming back on to bowl, to get the important breakthrough, and he nearly did until Jake Topping decided to shell a catch on the boundary, pushing it for four runs in the process.

While wickets were falling around him, M Burslem was slowly ticking along, but eventually he fell to Rahul including a brave catch at fine leg from Dave Parkinson with a swollen finger. Not to miss out on the wickets either, Parkinson took the last wicket of Church Eaton s innings to bowl out the hosts for 120.

After a break in play, Audlem's opening pair of Shenton and Rahul walked to the crease hoping for an easy game which seems to elude this team.

It wasn't to be however, as opening bowler Ross took both wickets which brought Measures and Blatherwick to the crease. The two put on 58 together, 41 of which coming from Blatherwick's bat while the slow and steady Measures was anchoring the innings. In the end, after a few questionable shots and an increasing run rate, the Audlem innings stifled to 92-9 from 68-2.

In the end, Audlem fell just 9 runs short, tumbling to 111, after a good innings from AJ who gave us all hope at the end.

It was a game played in good spirits and sadly Audlem didn't come out victorious.

Hopefully the boys will fight back for a big game next week, as they face Ashcombe Park, who are joint league leaders with Audlem.