Foxton Granta CC News story


BOWLERS ON TOP AT CAMDEN

28 Jul 2013

TUCKER GARDNER PREMIER DIV. 1

Camden 73 (27.5 overs)  Foxton 106 (42.3 overs)

A sixth consecutive league win, this time away to Camden, kept alive Foxton's hopes of defending the title won last year, but not before they had suffered an anxious afternoon. With rain expected later in the afternoon and high humidity coupled with a softish green tinged surface batting appeared to be a challenging prospect after losing the toss. Camden's opening bowlers Phil Edwards and Simon Gardner exploited the conditions to full effect extracting swing and seam movement and after just six overs the visitors openers Henry Hunter and Cei Sanderson together with skipper Gareth Roots were back in the pavillion with just eight runs on the board. Chris Pepper, batting at four, then dropped anchor and was looking assured, but wickets continued to fall at the other end. Adam Webster, James Coe and Tom Sherwin all fell cheaply to the nagging consistency of Edwards and Gardner and after 27 overs the total had advanced at funereal pace to 55-6 with just five boundaries. Pepper (21 from 75 balls) then scooped a catch to hosts captain Alex Mutucumarana, another scalp for Edwards, who along with Gardner would go on complete their maximum 16 overs permitted unchanged. A desperately required eighth wicket stand of 29 from Andrew Kealy (25) and Jeffery Douglas (34), batting responsibly, and another last wicket partnership of 20 between the latter and Mark Ferrari partly retrieved the visitors position, but after 42.3 overs they took tea returning a lowly 106 all out total. Gardner 4-33, Edwards 3-32, spinner Keith Vincent 2-16 together with Mutucumarana bagging the important wicket of Douglas l.b.w. were the four bowlers employed by Camden.
Foxton's hopes were immediately raised as Aussie paceman Kealy claimed openers Vincent and Gardner in his first two overs. Third and fifth wicket stands of 24 each between Mutucumarana and Ed Pearson (14) together with Edwards reignited the hosts ambitions, but Kealy then struck vital blows as he bowled Pearson and Edwards and after 19 overs the game was in the balance with the hosts total on 60-5 and their hopes now resting with skipper Mutucumarana. The game for the first time tilted towards Foxton as Tyler Deas in his sixth over trapped Mutucumarana l.b.w. for a stubborn 32 from 76 balls and this exposed the inexperienced Camden tail. Kealy conceding just five runs from his final seven overs had tightened Foxton's grip on the match and together with two unfortunate late run outs they subsided to 73 all out from 27.5 overs. Kealy was at his very best and claimed his sixth five wicket haul this season as he returned figures of 14-6-32-6. A telling statistic as to the difficulty and lack of pace from the wicket was that of the 20 wickets to fall not one catch was taken by fielders behind the wicket. With leaders Wisbech losing at home to Godmanchester the position at the top has tightened considerably and promises an exciting finale to the season.
Next week Foxton I visit bottom side N.C.I. (Cambridge) and the 2nd XI after a narrow one wicket win over Camden III are at home to Wilbrahams II and closing in on the league title.