Braintree’s 2nd XI lifted themselves away from the drop zone in the Two Counties Division 6 after they completed the double over Melton St Audry’s after a fine all round display which saw them come out on top by 67 runs.
Having lost the toss and been inserted on a patchy, green, strip Braintree found it difficult to score early on and found themselves 41-3 in the 14th over. Dave Hale was the first to go as he was well caught low down at mid-wicket by Tom Sidhu for 5 before debutant Tom Urquhart fell to the same combination as Oscar Hibbert took his second scalp. It wasn’t long before he picked up his 3rd as skipper Andrew Sherry got in a bit of a tangle and was adjudged LBW for 3 and Braintree were up against it.
While the wickets fell at one end, Geoff Eveling stood and watched at the other as he took time to get himself accustomed to the two paced deck and when Himesh Patel joined him the pair started to rebuild. With a vast outfield that hadn’t seen a mower for a while there was lots of running to do as boundaries were hard to come by and the pair picked of singles and 2’s regularly to keep the scoreboard ticking. The introduction of Mawson and Crowley to the attack saw the run rate increase as neither could find consistency and the Braintree pair punished them regularly. Eveling brought up his half century in the 32nd over and Patel followed suit a ball later before they brought up an excellent 100 partnership. It was Melton skipper Tom Sidhu who broke the partnership as he induced a tired shot from Eveling who was bowled for 63 to end a stand of 113 and Patel followed 5 balls later as the returning Oscar Hibbert forced a top edged hook shot that was caught by Mawson at fine leg.
A collapse then came about when Oakley Elsom came back into the attack and 3 wickets in 4 balls – all caught at mid on by Fazil Akyol. Danny King (5), Arindam Ganguly (0) and Milo Edwards (0) the victims in the chaos. Hugo Adams fell in Elsoms next over as he was bowled for 1 before the father and son duo of Rob and Toby Adcock saw the overs out and got Braintree to a defendable 192. Toby (15*) played excellently to hold his end up while wickets tumbled at the other end before dad Rob came in and struck 2 sublime boundaries to finish unbeaten on 8.
Braintree were confident of defending a good total on a poor pitch and were soon ripping through the top order. Nathanael Mawson, off the back of big hundred 2 weeks previous, was made to look like a fish out of water as Danny King demolished his stumps for 1 and in the next over Andrew Sherry induced a nick from Ethan Banna which was superbly taken by Ganguly behind the stumps. 13-2 became 14-3 in the next over as the dangerous Tom Sidhu edged King to first slip where Sherry took a juggling catch. Braintree had their tails up and were well on top of their 4th placed opponents. Milo Edwards replaced Sherry as was quickly into his work as he took the edge of Connor Crowley’s bat sending the ball flying high and to the right of Dave Hale at 2nd slip who snapped it up nonchalantly and then he breached the defences of Tom Utting for 6 to leave the home side reeling at 69-5.
Enter Toby Adcock, a 14 year old leg spinner making his first competitive game of the season and boy did he make an impression. Leg spin is a fine art for anyone to practice and at a tender age it can be easy to let the nerves dictate but young Adcock showed a lot of poise as he plied his craft expertly against the aggressive intent of his foe. James Buchanan was his first victim, unable to read or deal with the Warne style slider that trapped him on the back foot and cannoned into his stumps. Sadasavan came in with intention of hitting every ball into the next village and, rather than get flatter to combat this, Adcock continued to throw the ball up and it wasn’t long before mid-on was in the game as Edwards took a fine catch to send the batsmen to the showers. That was not the end of Adcock’s work as Akyol nicked off to Ganguly before he removed the set batsmen, Furmston, who had battled hard for 59, this time stumped by Braintree’s enigmatic gloveman.
The only thing that this fairytale performance missed was the magic 5’fer but in the 30th over Eveling picked up a well-deserved wicket as he bowled Oakley Elsom for 1
A second consecutive win for Braintree in the first of a 4 game stretch against the top 4 sides in the league. Next up is a trip to the leaders, a side that tasted defeat at the hands of the Dolphins earlier in the season – Braintree will be hoping for a repeat dose.