DAN MARLES hailed the performance of Greg Smith as the opener contributed his best ever score in the Finchampstead first team as they took the lion’s share of a draw with Burnham.
Smith, who joined the club from Hurst last summer, has struggled for runs in the first 11 and spent much of last season playing for the Finch second string in the Thames Valley League.
But the batsman has been an ever-present for the first team so far this term, bumped up to a new role at the top of the order, although runs have still been hard to come by.
Before this weekend’s fine knock of 86, Smith had managed just 85 runs in his previous five matches combined.
And it was that 86 plus powerful innings from Billy Rogers (68) and Dan Lincoln (79no) which saw Finch close on 293-5 from their 64 overs.
That gave the visitors 56 overs to bowl out Burnham in the first of the timed matches as opposed to win/lose games.
But they could not quite manage to take the win with the home side holding on at 204-8 with JJ Dewes (4-58) the pick of the bowlers.
Despite failing to secure the win, Marles was keen to focus on the positives.
“I’m really happy for Greg,” the skipper told The Wokingham Paper.
“He’s looked really good recently and I’m happy he pushed on.
“He’s a top class fielder and a really good batsman. It was just a matter of time.
“He’s been unlucky in recent games and was just finding ways to get out.
“Hopefully that’s his little break now. He’s contributed to a really good performance and hopefully he can use that as a stepping stone to make that spot his own.”
Marles opted to bat first as Finch chased their third straight win and after last week’s centurions Andy House (6) and Marles himself (16) had been removed, the visitors needed somebody else to step up at 43-2.
From there, Smith continued his charge with 86 off 142 balls while Rogers scored 68 from 109 deliveries before being bowled with the score up to 169-3.
Lincoln came to the crease and survived to the end with nine boundaries during his knock of 79 off just 80 balls to help push the visitors up towards 300.
That would have been enough for the win in previous weeks, but in this different format, Finchampstead had to find the wickets and Burnham became content to settle for a draw.
“It can be frustrating,” said Marles.
“We left ourselves 56 overs which is still a lot of overs to bowl them out.
“We started well but that’s the thing about timed games. We got them into a position of five down with 20 or 30 overs to go, where they can just bat out for a draw.
“We’ll have more of those games and we just need to take a couple of chances and for a couple of things to go our way.
“On another day we bowl them out for 200 and it would be a really, really good win.”
He added: “It’s a shame not to win the game.
“But overall the performance shows we’re we’ve come from after the first few weeks of losing.
“We’re starting to get back to where we were last year now which is obviously quite pleasing.”
While Dewes followed up his three wickets last week with four this time, it was another tough week for last season’s star man Jandre Coetzee.
The overseas quick bowler, who will miss this weekend’s clash with Banbury after returning to South Africa following the birth of his first child, was the league’s top wicket-taker in 2016.
But his figures of 1-51 means the bowler has now taken just one wicket in his last three matches combined.
However, Marles is confident that when Coetzee returns to England, the wickets will start flowing again.
“I think there’s a couple of reasons,” said the skipper.
“He’s just flown back after having his kid on Monday so I think that’s been on his mind really.
“It’s different pitches too which were swinging around a lot last year. The pitches were doing a lot more for him and obviously the league has seen him now.
“He was a bit of a surprise package last year. He’s still bowling really well for us and he’s such a good bloke to have around in terms of his experience, his batting and his bowling.
“He’s been bowling really well and he has deserved more wickets than he’s got this year but I’m sure when he comes back from South Africa in a week and a half he will be fine to go again and pick up the wickets like he did last year.”
Victory lifts Finchampstead up to fifth in the table with a clash at home to Banbury to come on Saturday, the only side Marles’ Finches failed to beat during last season’s title-winning campaign.
And the skipper is happy with their position after a poor opening few weeks.
“It’s a shame we didn’t start that well this year,” he said.
“Things haven’t really gone our way with the suspensions and availability. We’re putting that behind us now and trying to play some really strong cricket.
“Even with a bad start we’re near to fourth now and if we can keep kicking on now, you never know where we can get to.”
Along with Coetzee, in-form spinner Dewes is also unavailable this weekend while Gary Loveday drops down to the 2s with Josh Lincoln, Matt Carter and Adam Dewes all coming in.
FINCHAMPSTEAD XI v Banbury: Marles (c), D. Lincoln (wk), Carter, A. Dewes, House, Hodges, Smith, Rogers, Parson, J. Lincoln, Uttley.
