Old Southendian 213-7

Stanford 1sts 214-3

OLD Southendian won the toss and elected to bat against Stanford. But their batsmen struggled to stand up to the Stanford bowling.

Although two of Old South’s opening four produced decent knocks – Rob Johnston scored 82 and Aaron Lucas a great 93 not – too many of the top order went cheaply.

Sam Hodgson, Mark Hope and Dennis Russell surrendered their wickets for a combined total of eight runs to peg back the batting average.

It was Ross Poulton who did most of the damage with the ball, although great catching from Matthew Page, Greg Barr and Michael Gray pegged Old South’s ambitions. Lee Knight and Barr were also among the wickets for Stanford.

Only Sandeep Muraleedharan put up a double figure fight in the mid-order, managing to score 11 and cling on until the end of the innings.

In reply there was a gritty and determined response from the Stanford top order who all played their part in the seven wicket timed win.

Kevin Smith (38) and Martin Leslie (35) started the innings off well until they gave away catches to Adam Hunt and Mathew Austin respectively.

Next up was Knight, who was in no mood to mess around and his 53 not out – together with Ross Poulton’s well crafted 64 – gave Stanford side a deserved victory.