With most of the young teams focus being on tomorrows 2 X1 cup final there was still the mater of league action that required full attention.
Liam lost the toss and Clifton were all together. Lewis opened the bowling and struck instantly with the first ball off the game and Clifton were in high spirits. Westleighs number 3 came in and was only batting one way until Lewis eventually picked up his second wicket in the sixth over.
After some pretty tight and accurate opening overs Tom struck with the assistance of Dan jones who took an excellent catch at mid-wicket. Liam and Rob then came on and bowled neat and tidy taking wickets at regular intervals to not let any batsmen get settled. Dan Jones then replaced Rob and bowled well taking a wicket like Mark Wood with keeper Steve taking a catch off the glove down leg side.
Lewis (5-0-39-2), Tom (6-1-17-1), Rob (7-1-28-1), Dan (6.5-2-22-2), Owen (1-0-2-0) All the bowlers bowled excellently but the stand out has to be the skipper taking another 4-fer with figures off (14-2-38-4).
Onto the batting and Steve opened up with Owen and got off to a very good start with an opening partnership worth 67, Steve making most of them before he fell just short off the half century mark for 46. Owen was the next to go for a steady 17. However, the “Hogben experiment” Certainly went better than the last outing.
At the crease now was the young left-handed duo of Dan and Lewis, unfortunately their time together wasn't a long one with Lewis falling for 10. Liam joined Dan and they had a decent partnership worth 31 before Dan was bowled for 20. Aj’s (5*) intent and Liam’s (27*) experience saw Clifton across the line winning comfortably by 6 wickets and with some 10 overs or more to spare.
A great team performance but moment of the day has to go to Nick Flaxman for his excellent diving stop at mid-on (rolling back the years) after coming out of retirement only an hour before the start of the game.
Now all focus is on Sundays Cup Final!