Well, despite the fact that we lost (again!) this game had its moments worth recording. We lost the toss and Burwell & Exning decided to bat first. Their innings started disastrously for them, when captain Rash had their opener caught behind off his 4th ball. The next wicket fell in the 7th over caught by HC-B off Jack Loveday. Our joy however was short lived as Bramley and Tetley put on a partnership of 99 in very quick time before Hugo took a very smart caught and bowled to dismiss Bramley for 66. This unfortunately was not the precursor of things to come as Catley joined Telley and accumulated a further 70 runs in even quicker time before Catley was adjudged leg before to Murty. The next two wickets fell cheaply before Sam Rippington joined Tetley for another partnership of 60 runs until Tetley was finally removed by Rashy, caught by Josh Frame on the boundary.The rest oif the batsmen pushed the score onto 301 before running out of overs.
Our innings started normally with the steady fall of wickets during the course of which Ben’s contribution of 50 runs off 62 balls was the only event worth noting up to yet! When Rashy was the 5th wicket to fall, surprise, surprise, who should stride to the wicket full of purpose but our Murty. The next thing was Ben’s demise, lobbing an unmissable catch to Jay Ghelani and one ball later Jack was back in the pavilion as well so in walked Hugo to join Murty. While I was busy looking to see if the ‘fat lady’ had arrived yet, Murty and Hugo played merry hell with the bowling. It was as if it had suddenly lost all its venom and between them they hit 15 fours and 4 sixes to all parts of the ground. Just as we were starting to harbour thoughts of a win of Ben Stokes magnitude, Hugo whilst attempting to hit the ball into the next village, skied it to deep mid wicket. His first mistake was to stop and watch the catch. When Jamie Seabrook spilled it, Hugo made his second mistake which was the fatal one. He decided to run. Quick as a flash Seabrook regathered the ball and hurled it at the wicket like an exocet missile. It was an amazing piece of fielding considering he had only one stump to aim at and the ball took the bails off so cleanly that the stumps were hardly disturbed. Unfortunately Hugo was too late to make his ground. Both Hugo and Murty I believe, made their highest score in Mildenhall colours and an 8th wicket partnership of 123 runs. In the end we only lost by 38 runs and the 263 runs equalled our highest innings total this year, the other one being against Saffron Walden in the first game of the season.
Thanks for the wine chaps and I shall watch your last two matches from afar so the best of luck against Frinton and Sudbury.