Hadleigh 123 for 6 off 20 Overs
Rayleigh 114 for 6 off 20 Overs
Hadleigh won by 9 runs
Team: Christian H (Capt), Gideon H, George B, Nick B, Nathan H, Lloyd S, Sam L, Tom P, Tom G, Matt J and Matt C.
Following last week’s crushing defeats and the subsequent defection of a couple of players it was good to see the team respond with a vastly improved performance against the Division’s only unbeaten side. In fact, if you were to take away Hadleigh’s two opening batsmen, who were quite simply a class apart, we would probably have been on the right end of the result.
As it was, a flurry of excellent shots by the Hadleigh openers saw them both retire within 8 overs and a total of around 80. With sanity restored our bowlers were then able to drag the innings back such that only another 43 runs were scored in the next 12 overs. Nathan (4–1–15–0), George (4–1–18–1), Christian (4–1–11–1) and Tom G with two wickets bowled us back into the game and were well supported by an outstanding effort from all the fielders including 4 catches (Sam L, Matt C, Matt J and George) and a run out (George).
In reply we lost Christian early on but recovered well and moved along at around 5 an over for most of the innings. With Lloyd gone for 19 and George retired at 36, Gideon smashed his way to 30 ably supported by Tom P but as the asking rate climbed to 9 and then 10 an over we struggled to stay in touch and ultimately fell 9 runs short.
This was a great effort by all involved and a massive improvement over last week but we must continue to work hard in all aspects of the game if we are to achieve better results in the second half of the season.