Bad day at the office

The day started badly for Ashtead as captain Josh Pickering injured his foot moving the sight screen before the match started and was forced to spend the majority of game leg up with an icepack. Normandy won the toss and elected to bat, but an early wicket for Rose, caught cleanly by Ashtead sub Nick Hill raised a cheer from the home crowd. The Stags’ bowlers worked hard, all taking wickets, and the fielding was good with seven catches in the match, but it was slow going for Ashtead as Normandy’s batsmen peppered the boundary. Ben Frost (75) was particularly difficult to dislodge and with the score on 201-6 after 42 overs, a big target looked likely.

With injury to Ross McAdam, landing on his shoulder while going for a catch, the Stags were a bowler down. Bring on Gary Martin, already with two catches, as a second spinner and the reward was the scalp of troublesome Ben Frost. Another wicket each for Gary and Aaron and a last wicket run out, courtesy of a long distance throw in by Will Culhane, and Normandy were finally out for 236 in the final over.

A big target for the Stags, but certainly do-able if their past performance was anything to go by. Unfortunately this was not to be their day. Two early wickets and already two batsmen down through injury things did not look promising. With the exception of Kamran Mirza, who put together a tidy innings of 42, the Stags batsmen capitulated largely for single figures. Particularly damaging was the spin of Mo Khan who took 4-28. Ashtead all out for 101, definitely a bad day at the office for the Stags, but perhaps some lessons to be learned. Hopefully they will bounce back for next week’s game against Weybridge.