DIFFICULT CONDITIONS BUT BULLS BATTING DISAPPOINTS IN 5 WICKET DEFEAT BY BENWELL HILL

8th May 2023

               NEPL Division 2: SNCC v Benwell Hill (h): Sat 6^th May 2023.

SNCC 106ao (41o) Sadiq Khan 11, Nick Tomlinson 13, Alex Weetman 10, James Lunn 14, Ben Hobbs 12: Harry Bennett 0-35, Safiun Diip 3-16, Peter Jones 1-20, Abu Siddique 2-17, Jake Robson 2-13, Prahalad Nadella 2-0.

Benwell Hill 108-5 (30.5o) Joe Moore 11, Matthew Hynd 30, Zain Ahmed 18, Prahalad Nadella 28: Allan Davidson 0-15, Gavin Paton 3-26, Sadiq Khan 0-20, James Lunn 0-16, Ru Fletcher 0-3, George Gray 1-25.

Benwell Hill won by 5 wickets - 24 points, SNCC 2.

The Hill won the toss & chose to bowl. Alex Charnley & Sadiq Khan faced the left arm seam of Bennett & off spin of Diip. The ball turned & Alex C (2) overbalanced as the ball spun past the outside edge to be stumped off Diip, 9-1.

Disciplined bowling & a responsive surface meant scoring was difficult. Sadiq (11, 30b) attacking, was bowled by Diip at 23. Nick Tomlinson was watchful & nudged to 13 (40b) before offering a catch to point of Diip when one bounced, 37-3 in the 14th.

This became 52-4 as Alex W (10, 18b) advanced to Jones' sla & was stumped by w/k Hynd. One run later Angus Southern (4, 24b) aiming to steer feathered behind off Siddique, 53-5, then 62-6 as Ru (3, 14b) was bowled by a good one from Siddique which jagged back.

James Lunn & Gavin Paton slowly fashioned a partnership of 19 before James (14, 36b) was lbw to Robson, 81-7. Ben Hobbs showed promise but at 92 Gavin (8, 41b) was bowled by Robson. Tough going & at 102 Ben (12,21b) was bowled by Nadella aiming to steer to third man.106-9. Three balls later Allan (0) was also bowled by Nadella leaving George Gray 5*.

The Bulls 106 all out, a difficult surface to score on against disciplined bowling but only 41 overs of the 50 used. Spinners Diip & Jones, a combined 19-4-36-4, turned the ball sharply. 150-175 would have been a competitive score to defend.

Remarkably conditions for batting seemed to have eased for the second innings, the Bulls seamers & spinners getting less out of the surface than the visitors. Moore & Hynd took the score to 16 before Moore (11) edged Paton to w/k Weetman.

Ahmed & Hynd pushed on but at 39 Ahmed (18), as non-striker, failed to beat Ben's throw from mid-wicket to w/k Alex & was smartly run out.

A partnership of 51 between Nadella & Hynd thwarted the spells of Sadiq (lb), James (ob) & Ru (rm); Ben had to retire hurt, injuring a bowling hand when falling after two balls of his first over. 

Nadella survived a dropped catch to mid wicket off James Lunn & then at 

90 Hynd's leading edge (30, 82b) was caught by Ru at mid-off, Gavin the bowler. 6 runs later Nadella (28, 40b), edged behind to Alex W, also off Gavin, 96-4.

One run later Diip (0) thick edged a cut & the sharp chance to the w/k was taken by Alex off George's off spin, 97 -5. McGregor 5*(17b) & Dawson 6* (5b) saw the Hill home after only 30.5 overs.

A cautionary tale, spirited bowling & fielding but we must aim to bounce back against Gateshead Fell (h) on Sat 13^th May 2023, 50/50, 1200 start. Hope you can join us.

Duncan.