Published: Sunday, 15th June, 2008 12:00
Pitch battle cannot dampen Beac's spirits
By Andy Stiff
Comments (0)
Print Article
FRUSTRATION reigned for Beaconsfield who failed to maintain a fine start to the season when Chesham, defending 155, restricted them to 150-8.
The slow pitch made for tough batting conditions and despite 68 from James Sherry, Paul Gurnell’s side had to settle for seven points.
“The groundman did a brilliant job just to get the pitch ready because it was under water on Wednesday,” he said.
“Chesham batted well but we were confident we could chase it. However, they took the old ball and did a good job, keeping it tight and just taking the pace of the ball.”
So far there have been few re-entry problems for Beaconsfield who narrowly exited the Home Counties League last season and as far as Gurnell is concerned second-best simply will not do.
“It has been tougher because we have had to readjust to the shorter games and teams will be us up there and want to get one over on us,” he said. “It was very frustrating to go down last season, we didn’t feel we should have and want to bounce back straight away.”
The side has been strengthened with South African A teamer Matthew Harris and with ex-Pakistan test player Shakeel Ahmed leading the bowling attack Gurnell is confident of further success. “The guys in the side all know what we have to do,” added the captain. “So far everyone has responded really well.”
North Maidenhead’s skipper Simon Carter is considering a rethink of his team’s tactics after playing out a draw to Amersham on Saturday.
Amersham made 218-6 in their 52 overs and the opposition could only reach 153-7, Carter promoted himself to open when an injury struck and found the afternoon most frustrating despite a personal triumph of 65.
“I normally bat like a number eight, block a couple then hit and that is what I did. I hit the second ball of the innings from the spinner for six and thought we had a game on but they put a man straight back and did the same from the other end.
“Soon there were six men back on the fence for me and eight when our overseas came out to bat.
“They had no intention of letting us chase it down so we certainly weren’t going to play into their hands and throw our wickets away.”
Both of North Maidenhead’s victories this season have come batting second and this was the tactic the side chose in their bid to win the league.
However, their two drawn matches this season have only yielded six points apiece because of batting second. League rules are geared up to teams batting first and bowling a side out to win – an extra five points if you can win in this manner and double batting points if a team fails to win. The notion is admirable but Carter thinks it may have gone too far.
“What we’re seeing is teams batting first and not attacking because they know if they got 200 it’s 10 points in the bag and probably more like 12 or 13. Then if the other team loses their way it can turn into 25.
“I’d like to see some changes, maybe allowing a team 25 points for winning batting second if they don’t win the toss because they may not have chosen to chase. You could also double the bowling points for the side bowling first if they don’t win.
“We came into this division with the aim of winning this season and are still only 12 points off second place.
“It may be we need to gamble and try and pick up some 25-pointers to get ourselves up the table and then reassess.”
Further Details
