After 5 losses in a row for the T&N Crusaders, they finally picked up an away victory against Bubbles Best in a one-day league match at the Bubble Dome.
Crusaders won the toss and chose to field first, an excellent decision with the ball doing some movement early on. Bubbles did not start well with Plaatjies being bowled by Eddie Ayres in the second over. Partnerships threatened, but nothing substantial was produced as the visiting bowlers kept plugging away at the middle order. Keeper McKinley made 37, but nothing else of note was sufficient to reach a decent target, ending on 150 all out. John Simpson was the best of the bowlers, picking up 3/39. Chris Hayward’s 2/15 and Mike Legg’s 2/22 provided good support for Simpson.
The target was never going to be a challenging one, with Prince(32) and O’Shea opening with a stand of 59 in just 8 overs. Prince’s wicket fell, followed by Jeremy(13), before Lothrop(25*) joined O’Shea to end the agony for the home team. O’Shea won the man of the match award for his 75*.
O’Shea commented after the match, “I was very impressed with our spinning effort, I thought the conditions were perfect for the spinners. Even though it was an emphatic victory, I almost wish that we could have had Chris Kotzo and Stephen Harding added to our bowling mix to really exploit the pitch. We still have work to do if we want to stay out of the relegation zone, and we’re definitely going to be up for it next week”.
The Crusaders have one more one-day match left of the season against SVD LOL, an away match.
The team was: Prince, O’Shea(c), Jeremy, Lothrop, Simpson, Kenny, Ahad(wk), Hayward, Blott, Legg, Ayres. 12th: Stearman.
