The 3rd team took maximum points from their rain-affected game against Tavistock. As rain washed out games in the rest of the county, our lead at the top of the division was extended to 20 points.
Tavistock (2 pts) 119 [36 ov] (N Goodchild 35, A.Stewart 3-13, P.Butson 3-24)
Plymouth (20 pts) 122-2 [35 ov] (V.Kandampully 53*, A. Sewell 35)
With the match reduced to 38 overs a side by rain, Abbo opened up with Reece and Jack. Reece immediately sought to convince the umpires that the pitch was playable by bowling a bouncer and falling over while doing so. Thanks Reece. Meanwhile, Jack Hughes was bowling with real consistency from the pavilion end; and his perseverance was rewarded when he grabbed the breakthrough with a snick through to Chris Lock behind the sticks.
However, the collapse didn't start in earnest until Abbo brought himself on to bowl, soon winning an LBW shout and then benefiting from an inspired piece of captaincy from Dave Watson, who watched the new batsman play one ball, then positioned himself neatly at short mid-wicket, only for the ball to fly straight to him the very next ball off Kaminski's defensive prod. Brearleyesque stuff indeed.
When Goodchild went off Abbo, knocking it to Venu at mid-wicket (again, carefully placed by D.Watson Esq), we felt we had a good chance of dismissing Tavistock cheaply. At the other end, Paul bowled his characteristic first-up filth but did settle into a better rhythm; knocking middle stump from the ground and persuading the batsmen to offer edges behind the wicket to Locky and to John Meredith; who held a nice catch at second slip.
Reeling at 70-7, the Tavistock tailenders tried a bit of heave-ho against Venu; who was smashed across the road, past the security hut, in a mighty blow. But Venu slipped in a couple of yorkers amid the hitting to finish with the quite extraordinary figures (in a low-scoring game) of 4-0-34-2. John Meredith came on to winkle out the number 11, and Tavistock were all out for 117.
Due to bowling Tavistock out, we now had 40 overs to get the 118 required for victory. There was an initial setback when Dave Watson was presented with an enormously wide half-volley first ball. Trying to smash it into Mount Edgecumbe, he succeeded only in nicking through to the keeper. 0/1.
This brought Vic to the crease to join Andy Sewell. Together, they saw off the bouncing new ball with great caution, and then steadily progressed towards the total, nicking singles with good judgement and hitting the occasional boundary.
Eventually, Andy holed out to long-off for an important 35, taking the score to 75-2. John Meredith joined Vic, and, in making a rapid 14*, saw off the rest of the runs in the semi-darkness without any further mishap. The chase was well-paced, and the target was passed with about 5 overs to go. There were just enough runs in the game for Vic to reach a half-century, and he walked off at the close with 53 unbeaten. Not a very fluent 50, admittedly, but not a bad innings, considering the gloomy conditions.
Because Plymstock, Clyst, Barnstaple and Brixham ALL didn't play, we extended our lead very dramatically. 14 more points over all of them; and a 20 point lead at the top. Lucky, in part. Let's go and beat those sides when we play them next, so we can say we've got this lead on merit, not on weather. Starting at Barnstaple on Saturday.
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