Crows seal first league win of campaign

CCA Junior League 2C

Royston CC 194-8 (40 overs)

Cherry Hinton II 141 (33 overs)

Royston won by 53 runs

ROYSTON won their first league match of the season on Saturday with a 53-run triumph over Cherry Hinton IIs.

With a strong side out, Royston felt well equipped to dominate a Cherry Hinton team that was also looking for a first league victory, and having won the toss on a scorching afternoon, Royston elected to bat first.

Cherry Hinton saw early success with the ball however, dismissing Royston’s top three batsmen cheaply, leaving Royston reeling at 29-3. Martyn Tokley fell soon after and with the score at 60-4 and it looked as though a collapse was on the cards.

However Paul Miller and Richard Temple steadied the ship, seeing off the opening bowlers and then cashing in on some looser and less potent bowling with controlled aggression.

The two of them batted through the middle overs and paced themselves beautifully until Miller was finally caught in the deep for an excellent 74 with the score on 169-5 – himself and Temple having put on an innings-saving 109 for the fifth wicket. Temple continued in the same vein before being run out pushing for a tight third run for 52.

With only a few balls remaining, some lusty blows from Matt Gillham nudged the scoreboard along and Royston finished on a competitive 194-8 from their 40 overs. Considering the nervous start to the innings, this was an excellent achievement with Miller and Temple’s partnership in the middle order proving to be crucial.

In reply, it was Temple who was first to make the breakthrough with the wicket of Dinesh (3) before Hootton struck five overs later in similar style to dismiss McKenzie for 13.

However, come drinks Cherry Hinton seemed in control at 104-3, over halfway towards their total and with wickets in hand. Leary and John Harper came into the attack and the former removed Ankur for 32 and this signalled the collapse of the Cherry Hinton innings.

Harper, tying up one end, bowled in metronomic fashion and picked up three more vital wickets as the Crows turned on the pressure. With Temple returning to the attack, proceedings were soon brought to an abrupt end with Williams being clean bowled and then two balls later the number eleven was smartly run out by Matt Gillham.

Cherry Hinton were all out for 141 in 33 overs, with John Harper ending with figures of 6-0-16-3, the pick of the bowling despite the wickets being mostly shared around in general.

Royston skipper Martin Leary commented after the match: “Naturally we’re delighted to have got the first win of the season but now we need to capitalise on the momentum gained from this victory and put in another good performance this coming Saturday against struggling Fulbourn. If we can string two or three wins together we can soon start climbing towards the top end of the table.”