Batting costs Firsts

With captain Tom Baxter winning the toss, Boston decided to bowl first.

With Scott Elleray and Riley Orr opening up, things couldn’t have started much better as Peter Morgan and Jordan Temple were both back in the pavilion with Bourne struggling at 12-2.

In the 12th over, Ben Stroud (on 18 at the time) was dropped by Tom Poole and he went on to get 78.

“Every team in this league will drop catches, but if you do drop them in this league, they will make you pay and that was certainly the case today,” reflected Baxter.

“Last year in the South Lincs and Border, if we dropped one, we would get another chance pretty soon after.

“He didn’t give us another chance and that is what this league is about.”

Tim Bell entered the attack and dismissed Carl Wilson and Tom Bentley pretty quickly in another impressive eight over spell.

The introduction of Baxter at the other end saw more tight overs and the runs harder to come by.

When Bourne were at 92-5, Boston needed a couple of quick wickets to ensure a low score was to be chased.

However, an impressive partnership by Stroud and Bentley steadied the ship and pushed them to 144 before Tom Dixon was dismissed by Baxter, after a good running-catch by Michael Musson.

Baxter dismissed Stroud, Matthew Kidd and Jack Berry to complete his five-wicket haul.

“It was pleasing to pick up five wickets, but more pleasing to get through 16 tight overs,” he added.

“It didn’t go as planned with the ball last week, so it was good to land the ball in the right spot.”

Bourne managed to make their way to 185-9 from their allotted overs.

Baxter ended the innings with 5-38 from his 16 overs.

At the tea interval, the heavens opened and rain delayed the re-start for 15 minutes.

Boston knew that if they batted their 50 overs, they would be very close to chasing down Bourne’s total.

The new opening pair of Poole and Musson started well and seemed to be seeing off the threat of the new ball until the fourth over saw confusion between the pair and Poole was run-out by Robert Dunn.

When Ryan Croom was adjudged to have edged behind and Liam Sparke was trapped in front, Boston were 17-3 and struggling.

“It wasn’t a very good start and continued to get worse,” Baxter added.

Saihan Azim and Baxter soon followed after being dismissed by Colin Cheer.

From there it was a case of when Boston would be bowled out and not if as Poole, Troops, Musson, Orr and Bell all fell to the bowling of Berry and Kidd.

Boston were dismissed for 63 in the 21st over of the innings.

“It was a terrible performance with the bat. Michael Musson is the only one that showed any sort of application with the bat,” the skpper added.

“He was the only batsman that faced more than 20 balls.”

Boston have now picked up 15 points from three games, and in the two completed games, have only managed one batting point.

The matchball sponsor was Drury’s Estate Agents and their choice of man of the match for Boston was Tom Baxter for his 16-over spell that saw him pick up 5 for 38 in that period.