Andover Cricket Club 1st XI (Sun) v Fair Oak on Sun 16 May 2010 at 2:00pm

Scorecard

Andover Cricket Club 1st XI (Sun) v Fair Oak on Sun 16 May 2010 at 2:00pm
Match was Abandoned ACC 231-3; FO 79-4

Match report Another sunday friendly looked destined to end in an Andover victory until the heavens opened and ensured no further play.

Once again Andover skipper Jonty Hadfield won the toss and elected to bat, knowing that the backbone of the batting line-up at his disposal was strong, in top form and capable of producing a colossal target. Opening with Matt Knight and Robbie Hadfield, Andover looked nervous initially against the swinging new ball. Both batsman played and missed and struggled to find their timing against a young seam attack but one positive was that Andover did not buckle and throw their wickets away at this early stage. However, after the prolonged struggle both batsman eventually managed to find their feet and began playing shots with a little more freedom, finding runs much easier to achieve. With added confidence and incisiveness both demonstrated calculated shot making and recorded a 100 run partnership. When both Knight (63) and Hadfield (70) were dismissed the run rate needed a considerable thrust to post a competitive total. With few overs remaining captain J Hadfield promoted himself up the batting order and provided the impetus the innings required along with Andy Sale and Harry Blackburn. From the off Hadfield (53*) demonstrated aggressive strokeplay and found the boundary with regularity. His blitz was tremendous as the final overs descended into sheer carnage, resulting in a scintillating and surely unsurpassable 231-3 off the allotted 35 overs.

In reply Fair Oak started positively with Ryan Ward bearing the brunt of this ferocious attack. S Buttle (35) in particular played with flair and took the attack to the Andover bowlers. However, the experienced and accomplished Mike Adams set the tone with his opening over by ripping out the other opening batsman. He continued to bowl briskly in a consistent channel making it difficult for the opposition to score throughout his spell. Despite this it was not until the introduction of Pete Roberts that Andover managed to get a real stranglehold on the game. He notched up three quick wickets to leave Fair Oak reeling at 79 -4 when the rain set in for the day and resulted in the abandonment. It was a great shame the game could not be finished but Andover will no doubt take the positives from the game and take them into next weekend's fixtures.

Andover Cricket Club 1st XI (Sun) Batting

231 for 3

Player Name		Runs
Matt KNIGHT	Bowled M Hunt	63
Robbie HADFIELD	Caught ? Bowled M Hunt	70
Andy SALE	Caught & Bowled Vincent	9
Jonty HADFIELD	Not Out	53
Harry BLACKBURN	Not Out	16
Mike ADAMS
Ben KNIGHT
Dan TURNER
Ryan WARD
Peter ROBERTS
Matthew GOODMAN