Match Report: Aug 07, 2011: Pangbourne vs West Ilsley
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Pangbourne lost by 52 runs - View full scorecard
Pangbourne crash to heavy defeat, and it's not all down to the weather.
A disappointing day for Pangbourne as they succumbed to West Ilsley by 52 runs due to a combination of sloppy fielding, inclement weather and a very unpredictable wicket. So much for home advantage, I think the Pangbourne batsmen will rejoice when the square is dug up later this month even more than the opposition do.
Neil started the day by winning the toss and opting to bowl, which we all agreed looked like the right thing to do. As it turned out, batting first while the lush outfield was drier turned out to be the better option.
West Ilsley started briskly and while Ahamed bagged a brace they kept up the pressure on the bowlers. The first change brought about a slight reduction in the run rate and if not for some missed catching opportunities Pangbourne could have turned the screw a little. The second change saw Mo pick up 3 good wickets with a ball getting wetter by the minute. An early tea was taken in monsoon conditions, after which the final couple of West Ilsley overs passed with little drama. One highlight in the otherwise average fielding display was a great run-out by Mikey with just one stump to aim at.
Pangbourne, set a pretty steep task of scoring 143 in 30 overs, got off to the worst possible start as Neil was bowled with the 4th ball of the innings. The pitch, despite being soaking wet, seemed to come alive and balls were skidding through with the usual completely unpredictable bounce. Smith struggled to get going and was just trying to survive a peppering from Simmons, but once Amit was dismissed he looked to put a decent partnership together with big hitting Mo. A measure of how the outfield was playing is that Mo struggled to find the boundary, and we all know how easily he manages that on a dry sunny day (in fact we only managed 6 between us, and 3 were down to Mo!)
Mo went on to top score the whole match with 32, finally finding the boundary after resorting to some enormous lofted shots. Unfortunately, trying hard to push on, he holed out to a well taken catch.
We were treated to a sublime shot late on from Tom who creamed one off his pads to the square leg boundary. It wasn't enough and West Ilsley wrapped up the tail and Pangbourne were all out for 90.
Big thanks to Nick for a lovely tea, although the fruit bowl seemed to confuse most of us...
