Addiscombe 4s beat Merstham

Match report by Brandon Dias:

This week, back to “Fortress Addington” for a match against Merstham, who are mid-table, but had beaten league leaders Sutton the previous week with a winning draw, so this was not going to be an easy match.

We lost the toss, and the oppo decided to bat first, making us chase – not something we have done much this year. Mano and Ollie opened the bowling – keeping a nice tight line and restricting the runs to a minimum. Building pressure caused wickets to fall, Mano and Ollie getting LBW’s, first change Wakil bowling another, and a run out by Mano reducing them to 48 – 4.

The ball was moving in the air with some good out-swing, when unfortunately, we lost a ball in the hedges, and the replacement didn’t move at all. The sun also came out, which meant the pitch became pretty flat, and Merstham started to bat well with a few middle order partnerships. Addiscombe bowled without much luck at this point, ball going in the air but not near a fielder, or potential run outs not being taken, or catches missed. Jack (Birthday Beefy) Southwell bowled 10 overs on the trot in stifling humidity, only getting 1 wicket with no luck at all – he was much leaner by the end of his spell!! Aaron chipped in with a few overs, and Farooq also bowled a few overs, getting 2 wickets. Brandon also got a great run out – the batsmen hit the ball, hit the non-facing batsmen on the foot, which went to Brandon at mid-on, he picked up, diving full length at the stumps from side on and ran the batsmen out!!

Merstham ended up on 151-8. All the bowlers did OK in very hot conditions with Mano 13 overs 1 for 32, Ollie 9 overs 1 for 12, Jack 10 overs (4 maidens) 1 for 33, Wakil 6 overs 1 for 21, Farooq 5 overs 2 for 24.

Jon and Steve H went out to open the batting for ACC, with Steve falling for an LBW early on for 5. This brought in Hasnain, who with Jon got a nice partnership going. Jon was next to go, another LBW victim for 23: this time the rest of the team would have to do it without the captain at the helm. George was in next, but was bowled for 5 by the fast bowler, who bowled nice and straight, not giving any room for shots. This brought in Beefy Jack S (who’s birthday was the previous day) – could he do it as part of his birthday celebrations??

Hasnain and Beefy played some lovely defensive strokes at this point, digging in and seeing off the oppo fast bowler and then making hay against the other bowlers. The run rate started to increase, then Jack started his birthday celebrations with a bang, smacking boundaries galore – pulling, sweeping and hooking some massive (beefy!) sixes towards the houses – hitting 24 off one over, losing a few balls in the process, and hitting a car as well (Capt Jon went round to see the owner to apologise.) Runs were flowing nicely, Beefy getting his fifty when suddenly an easy two runs were called and Hasnain got caught short – run out for 23!!

Score was 119-4, still another 32 runs to get – could the Beefmeister see us over the line? It wasn’t to be, bowled shortly after for 56, leaving 2 new batsmen in: Brandon and Wakil, could they do it? Capt Jon was prowling the boundary at this point, a bundle of nervous energy, desperate for a win for ACC . Wakil wanted to smack every ball for a boundary, Brandon settled him down and they just started ticking off the runs, hitting the bad balls and blocking the good balls. Merstham tried the last roll of the dice, bringing their fast bowler back on, but he couldn’t make a breakthrough. It was left to Wakil to hit the winning runs! We did it! Wakil finished 15 not out and Brandon 11 not out – a win for Addiscombe by 4 wickets!!

It was a well earned win for Addiscombe, celebrated with some Dad dancing by Capt Jon in the dressing room – not for the faint-hearted!! Both sides above ACC won as well (Sutton and Dorking), but ACC maintain the pressure on them, with an away match at Old Wimbledonians to come next week (the side immediately below us in the table).

Big thanks to Rikky for scoring during Merstham’s innings and then umpiring too. Also to Aaron scoring the majority of the ACC innings and of course to our resident umpire Gav.

Match report by Brandon Dias