Evening League
Date: 15
July 2003
Report:
St Ouen’s went into the game knowing that only a
victory would be enough to keep up their hopes of at least a play-off for the
Division 1 title.
With both sides fielding fairly strong bowling
line-ups and with the grass being quite long in most parts of the outfield,
runs would be at a premium.
Beeches won the toss and elected to bat first in a
game of 12 overs a side.
Josh Hackland started brightly for Beeches but St
Ouens managed to keep the runs in check by taking wickets at regular intervals.
The introduction of Danny Blasco (bowling off-spin)
started to swing the game in St Ouens favour. His final figures of 3 wickets
for 19 runs including the wicket of Hackland were very impressive as 16 of
those runs came in three scoring shots (two sixes and a four).
St Ouen’s managed to keep it tight to the end of the
12 overs, with Beeches being bowled out off the last ball of the innings for 90
with Horton finishing with 4 for 17 from his three overs.
Hackland, who innings of 43 included five fours and a
six was the only Beeches batsman to reach double figures.
Knowing what was required for victory, Mark Tribe and
Rob Tewkesbury set about their target.
Amir and Gibson bowled tight first overs but the next
two gave up 29 runs. However, just as the batsmen were looking comfortable,
Beeches took 3 wickets in three overs to turn the match back into their favour.
Fortunately for St Ouen’s, Tribe had remained at the
wicket and joined by Horton the pair started to build towards their target.
12 were required from the last over to be bowled by
Amir. Tribe smashed the first ball for four and a single gave Horton the
strike. The third ball was lofted over long-on for six and a single off the
fourth ball gave St Ouen’s the victory they needed to keep their hopes alive.
Mark Tribe finished unbeaten with an excellent 42 and
Paul Horton on 25.
Gibson and Huckle were the pick of the bowlers for
Beeches taking 1 for 15 and 2 for 19 respectively.