Braintree’s Ones made the short trip to Sudbury on Saturday looking for their first league victory of the season, unfortunately they returned down the A131 still searching. Chris
Walker won the toss and elected to bat first, however during the warmup Joe Osbourne
twisted his ankle and was unable to take his place in the side. Fortunately, Captain Chris’ Dad had travelled to watch the game and was persuaded to take Joe’s place.
On the hottest day of the year so far Chris Hinks and Matt Renvoize opened the batting for the Dolphins, unfortunately Chris was soon trudging back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers, having found the safe hands of Rohan Khaira with his first aggressive shot. Last
season’s skipper duly took himself off to the far corner of the ground to gather his thoughts
with head in hands.
Renvoize was joined at the crease by Toby Adcock and the pair batted sensibly, putting on
43 runs for the second wicket. Matt had looked in good nick, hitting five boundaries; however, when attempting a sixth he was caught in the deep by Ron Batch for 27. For Sudbury, Scicluna and Khaira were proving hard to score against, with the former conceding just 9 runs from his 7 overs. Toby Adcock and Bryn Powell steadily built a partnership,
pushing singles whenever possible and adding 33 runs before Powell was also caught by Batch after making 16. Adcock had managed to keep his wicket intact, scoring 37 from 78 balls, but he was then deceived by a delivery from Stace and found his stumps dismantled. After 28 overs Braintree had reached just 89 for 4. Captain Walker responded by playing more aggressively, striking 3 maximums and 3 fours in a lively innings, but after making 45 he was superbly caught by
Stace off his own bowling.
The Dolphins’ tail failed to wag as Himesh Patel (3), Johnny Whiteoak (0), Glen Newham (5),
Phil Walker (0), and Josh Paget (0) all came and went in quick succession. Callum Lazarus
was unbeaten on 5 as Braintree’s innings closed on 148.
After an excellent tea, the home side began their run chase with Johnny Whiteoak and Chris
Hinks opening the bowling for the Dolphins. By now Hinks had gathered his thoughts and
Sudbury failed to deal with his spin as he quickly had Scicluna and Lack caught by Chris Walker and Matt Renvoize respectively. The batters found Whiteoak’s bowling easier to get away, however he also got in the wicket taking act as Waldock snicked off to Renvoize behind the stumps.
Toby Adcock was brought on to bowl in tandem with Hinks and it wasn’t long before he had Mansfield caught and bowled. Moulton-Day was seeing the ball well, but he became Hinks’ third victim when Whiteoak held the catch on the boundary. Hinks’ allotted 9 overs conceded only 12 runs. Adcock then continued to trouble the Sudbury batters, bowling Smith and drawing an edge from Brown which Bryn Powell safely caught.
At 66 for 7, that elusive first win looked more than possible. However, Stace and Khaira had different ideas and began to score more freely. With Adcock’s 9-over spell complete at 3 for 42, Chris Walker, Josh Paget, and Johnny Whiteoak all tried to break the partnership without
success as Sudbury passed the target with plenty of overs to spare.
Maybe if Braintree could have mustered another 30 runs things may have been different; however, once again they didn’t.
Next week Copdock and Old Ipswichians visit St Peter’s Road and, fingers crossed, it will be the start of a winning run for the Dolphins.