3rd XI v Fleet 3rd XI

Longridge Takes Six as Sonning Third XI Sweep Aside Fleet

Sonning's 3rd XI produced one of the most complete bowling displays of their season at Fleet, dismantling the home side for 56 before knocking off the target inside eleven overs to win by nine wickets with 29.3 overs to spare.

Fleet won the toss and chose to bat on a morning that quickly turned uncomfortable for them. Darren Edwards went second ball, and from that moment Sonning's opening pair simply refused to give anything away. Michael Longridge bowled his full ten overs straight through, three of them maidens, and finished with six wickets for eight runs, a return that will stand comparison with anything produced in Division 9A this summer.

At the other end Shahid Imtiaz was, if anything, even harder to score off. Eight of his ten overs were maidens and he conceded five runs in all while taking two wickets, an examination of patience that the Fleet batters met with plenty of application but very little reward. Jameel Ahamed and Mohamad Shahbaz kept the pressure on in support, and when Arun Kumar Pera was brought on he removed two of the last three to wrap the innings up in the 34th over.

The scale of Sonning's control is best measured by the fact that not a single boundary was struck in the entire innings, and that Fleet's 56 included 19 in extras. Skipper G Whiting battled hardest for the home side with 16 from 49 balls, and Oscar Russell's 8 was another innings built on stubborn defence, but the scoreboard barely moved at a shade over a run and a half an over.

The chase was a rather different affair. Wazir Khan made a brisk 7 before being trapped lbw by Harpreet Singh with the score on 12, and that was the only success Fleet had all afternoon. Jameel Ahamed, having already bowled seven tidy overs, settled in and finished unbeaten on 25, striking two fours and taking care to see the job through.

Shamitha Widanapathirana then decided the matter in a hurry, driving three fours and a six in an unbeaten 24 from 16 balls at a strike rate of 150. The winning runs came in the 11th over, leaving Michael Longridge, Mark Lilley and the rest of the middle order with nothing to do but applaud from the boundary.

Credit is due to Harpreet Singh, who took the one wicket to fall and asked questions with the new ball, and to Brett Backstrom, who conceded only 14 from his three overs in a losing cause. For Sonning, though, this was a day when the plan came off almost perfectly: twenty overs of relentless bowling from Longridge and Imtiaz, sharp catching in the field, and a chase completed without alarm.