Woodcote 2s (199 all out) beat Crowthorne & Crown Wood 3s (152-8)
Crowthorne & Crown Wood’s third XI remain in third place in Berkshire Cricket League Division 3 after they lost out away to Woodcote 2s.
The Crows had a side that included four youth players, including league debutants Katie and Joe Finucane, however some seasoned Crows helped to keep the average age of the team high.
Woodcote won the toss and elected to bat, they started well putting on 47 despite some excellent bowling from youth debutant Katie Finucane (0-13 from her four overs) and youth player Shravan Sathiyan (0-17 from four overs).
The first wicket fell when Woodcote skipper Jonny Aldridge (17) edged behind off Marshall Miller (1-25) with keeper-captain Rich Hester taking the one handed diving catch.
Mike Storey (2-36) then bowled well and took a couple of quick wickets to put the Crows in the driving seat with Woodcote on 54-3 before drinks.
Woodcote then rallied with a 117 partnership with good batting from Stefan Gordon (82) and Rakesh Patel (34), and looked on for a big score with 171 on the board and 10 overs left.
However, Prakash Singh (4-12) and Dan Partridge (3-45) produced some excellent bowling to peg Woodcote back and take the remaining wickets to leave Woodcote 199 all out from 38.4 overs, leaving the Crows needing 200 from their 40 overs.
Woodcote started well, with tight bowling from Rakesh Patel (2-31) and Raja Raqafat (2-24) leaving the Crows in a perilous position in the run chase at 46-4.
Skipper Rich Hester steadied the ship, putting on a 56 partnership with youth debutant Joe Finucane (7), who batted with composure beyond his years, to edge the Crows into batting points territory.
But when Hester (43) fell just short of a half century, the Crows were facing an uphill struggle to stay in the game at 105-6. Some excellent lower order batting from Vinay Lall with a rapid 17, and a solid partnership from Katie Finucane (7*) and Marshall Miller (20*) helped to push the Crows into extra batting points territory to much cheering from the away team, when Miller secured two bonus points with a four in the final over to take the score past 150 and 75% of Woodcote’s total, but in the end a defeat by 47 runs.
Despite the defeat, the 12 bonus points helped the Crows to remain third in the table with two games to play.
