RESULT - Stevenage lost by 4 wickets
Stevenage won the toss and batted and were given a brisk start by the experienced opening partnership of Russell Hann and David Carr. The pair put on 50 before Carr fell for 19 and Hann shortly
afterwards for 25. The partnership would have been much greater had it not been for some outstanding ground fielding in the covers. A couple of quick wickets fell and Stevenage were on the rack at 88 for 5 before the first of two
excellent partnerships involving Gary Brown. The first was with Albert Sodhi who made a fifty and the second was with Ashley Bayes who was unbeaten on 20 odd at the close. Brown eventually finished with 58 not out and the Stevenage score
had been increased to a competetive 225 from the 50 overs. Stevenage's defence of the total began well with one of openers falling to a catch behind to Carr off the bowling of Gareth Berg, but the Indian opener batted well and dominated the
bowling at the other end from Berg, who was unable to remove the number 3 despite a number of edges that fell short or out of reach of Martin Nevill who fielded very well at first slip. It was Nevill who eventually made the next breakthrough removing both
the Indian and the number 3 in his 10 over spell. This double breakthrough brought Stevenage back into the game and was followed up by a fifth wicket courtesey of Berg, but unrewarded spells from Ashley Bayes and Kevin Fisher meant the Stevenage side were on the brink of
defeat with forty runs needed from the last twelve overs. This led skipper Barry Turner to take drastic action and throw the ball to his two weapons of last resort, namely Ian Gane and David Carr. The latter giving up his wicketkeeping duties to the multi-talented Martin Nevill,
but not after taking a great stumping standing up to Gareth Berg. Gane bowled five overs and two balls and took one wicket for 19 runs in a tidy spell of seam bowling and Carr matched that effort. He started with a wicket maiden and bowled two further overs of swing and seam, before bowling an
over of leg spin that yielded only 2 runs to finish with figures of 4/1/14/1.
MoM - Albert Sodhi
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