5th XI Beat Westcliff

Report courtesy of Jas Baines.

Date: 3rd July 2021. Played at Belfairs Park, Leigh on Sea

The weather conditions were damp, overcast with rain in the air at Westcliff, Southend. The game was reduced to 35 overs per side, max 6 overs per bowler and batters retiring on 50 – all agreed by both skippers upfront.

Maldon’s skipper (Jas) called incorrectly and lost the toss – the home team were more than happy with putting Maldon into bat with the hope utilising the overhead conditions with the hope of keeping the score to a manageable total.

With the damp conditions batting was very difficult – Jas and Mason opened the batting and scoring for the first couple of overs was going at snails’ pace. Jas went early but Mason made a well composed 37. With the loss of the 1st wicket – Jason Morgan came in at No3. Jason is the 5’s most improved batsmen this year and he started his innings with a cover drive for 2. Unfortunately, he could not maintain the momentum and fell for 10.

Dan Baker then walked out to the crease and made 3 before falling victim to the spinner. Mie Newman then continued the scoring with Mason and put on Maldon’s highest partnership for the game. Mason eventually fell which bought Charlie Reeve to the crease – he made a steady from 7 balls before being bowled. Fraser Case then joined Mike and the pair saw us through to the end of the innings to a score of 126. 

With the damp atmospheric conditions and Maldon’s bowling attach the score of 126 was always going to be above par.

After the tea break Westcliffe opened their innings full of confidence believing that they could chase down Maldon’s score. However, Charlie Figg bowled with pace, aggression, and accuracy. He unintentionally, roughed up the opening bat by bowling a ball which hit him directly on the ‘wedding tackle’. Poor chap was lying in agony on the floor for several mins afterwards. This obviously unsettled the batter and he was clean bowled by Charlie soon after wards. Charlie finished his impressive 6 over spell with figures of 1 for 7.

Bethan Bailey was bowler No 2 and continued her impressive form with the ball. She bowled with control, accuracy & bamboozled batsmen with her spin. She took another wicket to add to her tally of 22 which puts her second on the club’s leader board for bowlers.

The key moment in the game was when the No 4 bat came in who was Westcliffe’s prime batsmen. He hit a 4 with a couple of balls and then went for another one over cow corner. Jason Morgan chase the ball down and then from the boundary through the ball straight to Mason (WK) who demolished the bails and the finger went up from the umpire. The throw was so good and accurate that he was out by a county mile!

Charlie Reeve and Joe Gregory came on first change – Charlie once again bowled with pace, aggression and accuracy and was unlucky not to get a wicket. The wicket was taking turn which Joe exploited perfectly finishing off with 2 wickets for 12 off 6 overs.

Dan Baker and Fraser Case bowled nicely and kept the scoring to below the required rate. Fraser bravely bowled the last over.

All, in all a good win for the 5’s under challenging weather conditions.

Next up for the 5’s is Upminster away where we will be hoping to the do the double over them.