Grace's took on Princes Head in a second team match on what turned out to be a killer pitch where few batsmen could play their shots.
Princes Head won the toss and elected to bat, scoring 140 all out with Graces bowling well. Howden and Bielby opened the bowling and bowled through, taking the first 4 wickets. Curtis replaced Howden and immediately took another 2 wickets, before Mendis and Rishafi combined to clean up the batting. Not bad for Grace's, but Princes Head had scored a few too many runs as Grace's had a few fielding mishaps. All learning opportunities.
As the second team is about giving everyone an opportunity, the Grace's batting lineup was experimental as Ali and Blomer opened the batting. Against some difficult bowling on an awful pitch, wickets fell, and after 11 overs 5 wickets were down for 12 runs - our worst start of the season. Mendis and Rishafi soon resettled matters, with Mendis in particular taking the attack on, hitting some wonderful shots and crashing ten balls to the boundary. Fantastic stuff. Along the way, Mendis hit the runs required to take him to 1,000 career runs for Grace's - well done.
After a 94-run partnership, Rishafi holed out to mid-wicket, getting a top edge. With Grace's now needing a run a ball, Sopp came to the wicket and misread the spinner. Bielby came in next and shared in a 16 partnership with Mendis before Mendis was out bowled, playing the ball down to point, having scored a magnificent 66 runs leaving his average at 80 this season. Howden and Curtis took Grace's to within 8 runs from 8 balls, with Curtis smacking two wonderful fours to become the third top scorer in the innings with 10. All exciting stuff, could Grace's do it? No - Howden was out, hitting the ball up in the air to be caught at point, allowing Princes Head to win by 8 runs. A close game, an exciting finish, but with 5 wickets down so early we really did well to get close.
Congratulations to everyone on such a close game. Second team games will get better the more experience we get together. Everyone played their part today and it was a shame that the pitch did not help shot selection. Our next second team game is on 17 July at Mill Hill, our home ground.