Mildert Make Steady Start to the Season as Castle Crumble

Van Mildert (135-4) beat Castle (133-9) by 6 wickets

Bowling first, Van Mildert made the most of a difficult wicket to restrict Castle to 133 for 9. The score looked 20 or so short, and so it proved with Mildert’s top order guiding their team home with 2 overs and 6 wickets remaining.

On a green and lively wicket, the Van Mildert captain was delighted to win the toss and elect to field. However, Mildert bowlers got off to a poor start, conceding 9 extras in the first two overs.

The umpire provided the early drama, bizarrely giving Pearce out LBW off a free hit before correcting his error.

But it was not long before Mildert were celebrating genuinely, with Jones making the break through. Pearce was trapped LBW for a fourth over duck, bringing James Sharpe to the crease.

The University 2^nd XI partnership of Sharpe and Paddy Jeynes set about laying the foundations of the innings in efficient style, guiding the score to 61-1 from 8 overs, though the Mildert bowlers continued to ask questions.

Saud Ahmed (4 overs, 2-21) looked particularly dangerous, consistently finding the right areas to make scoring difficult for the batsmen

And he got his just rewards, first trapping Jeynes LBW for 28, before getting a perfectly judged length ball to nip away from Sharpe (22) and rattle the top of his off stump.

The depth of Castle’s batting was not able to match the strength of Mildert’s bowling attack. Only John Wilson troubled the scoreboard in the latter stages, contributing a useful 22. This is in contrast to Mildert, who were able to call on solid performances from George and notably, Sam Tennant (2-25) to close out the innings. In the end Castle’s top scorer was the extras column, adding a very welcome 36 runs to the total.

Despite the low score, Castle knew the deviant pitch meant the Mildert batsmen would not be allowed to play their shots freely.

A tight start from Rhys Davenport (4 overs, 0-14), supported by spells from Matt Harraghy (1-26) and Jamie Davies (1-30) meant the game was never a full gone conclusion.

Though in reality, captain Richard Scargill and the impressive Tennant made a measured start, knowing that nothing drastic was needed to secure victory.

With wickets in hand, the two openers started to play more aggressively, resulting in chances for Castle. But they could not be taken; dropping regulation catches from both of them in one over.

Castle’s fielding, at times, left a lot to be desired. It ranged from the clumsy to the comical when two of their players collided to let the ball bobble between them both.

However, there were some good moments. Harraghy plucked a sharp chance off his toes from his own bowling, dismissing Scargill for a well-crafted 37.

His replacement, Ahmed (37 NO) backed up a fine bowling display with a devastating batting performance, using his wrists to whip away anything short for runs.

The top order steered Van Mildert home comfortably with 2 overs remaining. Mildert will regard this as a successful start to the season, though they will need to improve with the ball to be challenging for the title at the end.

For Castle, 2 loses from their opening 2 games places an even greater emphasis on next week’s crunch match with rivals Hatfield, though they will need to improve in all departments to make the transition from challengers to victors.